By John Helmer, Moscow

by Editor - Sunday, September 3rd, 2017
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On August 24, 1991, Marshal Sergei Fyodorovich Akhromeyev committed suicide. He had returned from his holiday at Sochi responding to the attempted removal of Mikhail Gorbachev from power. According to the reports of the time, he hanged himself in his Kremlin office, leaving behind a note. One version of what it said was: “I cannot […]

by Editor - Thursday, August 24th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Among the famous cautionary tales of a century and a half ago, the one about Augustus, the boy who refused to eat his parent’s soup for supper, is meant to inculcate obedience, with death as the alternative. This August for Russia readers you can have a third variant that’s both – […]

by Editor - Tuesday, August 1st, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow President Vladimir Putin doesn’t know how to talk to Americans. He thinks forbearance is the trick. The advisors Putin listens to, like Dmitry Peskov the mouthpiece and Alexei Kudrin the wannabe premier, know even less. Peskov thinks giving large sums of money to a Hollywood hack is the trick. Kudrin thinks […]

by Editor - Sunday, July 30th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Dixy is the Russian supermarket chain which is proving that the secret to selling groceries across the country at an annual loss of billions of roubles is, er, TOP SECRET.   This makes Dixy unusual because it is the only one of Russia’s top supermarket chains losing money. It is also […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 26th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Igor Zyuzin (lead image) is the first Russian oligarch to face prosecution for polluting the air around his factories. The announcement of criminal charges last week comes as Chelyabinsk regional and city officials escalate a war against lobbying by well-known names around President Vladimir Putin to save Mechel, Zyuzin’s coal and […]

by Editor - Thursday, July 20th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Never in the field of American conflict with Russia has so much wool pulled over the eyes been owed to so few sheep.  That was during the losing presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Now, in the investigations of President Donald Trump and his family, it’s a case of so many sheep […]

by Editor - Monday, July 17th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow “In war”, Thucydides lectured the Hellenes 2,400 years ago, “opportunity waits for no man.” Last Thursday evening, when President Donald Trump was prepping for negotiations with President Vladimir Putin, the Hellenes gave the two of them an object lesson in how the weak may defeat an attack of apparently overwhelming force. […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 12th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Thousands of years after spies were invented, and thirty years before the digital computer, there was SIGABA (lead image), an electric motor-powered mechanical apparatus for ciphering and protecting one’s communications from being intercepted or overheard by one’s enemies. Invented by two employees of the US National Security Agency, secretly patented in […]

by Editor - Sunday, July 9th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow If your enemy is waging economic war on you, it’s prudent to camouflage how well your farms and factories are doing. Better the attacker thinks you’re on your last legs, and are too exhausted to fight back.  A new report on the Russian economy, published by Jon Hellevig, reveals the folly […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 5th, 2017
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