By John Helmer in Moscow Gennady Onishchenko (picture) would flog a dead horse to protect domestic product market share against foreign imports, and that’s as good as protecting Russian consumer health, even better perhaps. Onishchenko saved Russians from the perils of Belarus milk last June and then in January he rescued the state from American […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Never let it be doubted that sunshine comes out of the EBRD’s arse after all – along with $50 million. According to a June 23 announcement from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) headquarters in London, the bank is proposing to lend the Joint Fruit Company (JFC), Russia’s dominant […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow A news agency report from Cairo yesterday, claiming the Egyptian health authorities have quarantined a new Russian grain shipment in port, has been disputed by the Russian inspection agency, and by grain shippers in Moscow, who are not sure whether the action signals a resumption of last year’s weevil wars […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
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  By John Helmer in Moscow In the milk business, sanctimoniousness can induce more nausea than salmonella. President Dmitry Medvedev big-noted his re-election campaign with a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday with this seeming call for competition to stimulate economic growth. “No matter how many state-owned enterprises we might have,” […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian wheat exporters are increasingly confident of beating US wheat imports in the Egyptian import market after a new deal for 180,000 tonnes of Russian grain, priced at $178.50 per tonne, was announced this week in Cairo, and confirmed by grain trade sources in Moscow. The sale undercuts the US […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 4th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow In case you haven’t realized, Russia is now running third in the league of world grain exporters, trailing the US and Canada, but ahead of Australia. (China remains the world’s largest producer of wheat, but eats it all up.) With the aim of competing against government wheat marketing companies like […]

by Editor - Thursday, April 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Two chickens were lying side by side in the refrigerator case of a Moscow shop in the Soviet year of 1988. One, American, was plump and cheerful; the other, Russian, was scrawny and sarcastic. “I’m so much fitter than you,” said the American to the Russian. “Well, at least I […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s anti-trust buster, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), has established a record of making much ado about little; and of regulating only those corners of the Russian market where no oligarch-sized interest is threatened – unless the threat is pre-authorized by the Kremlin’s running orders. But this week the agency […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow If the North American Treaty Alliance (NATO) takes seriously the threat the members believe the Russian military poses for the Saakashvili regime in Georgia, or the equally jumpy rulers of the Baltic shore, it might think twice about putting more North American beef into the borsch and pelmeni that Russian […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 15th, 2009
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