By John Helmer, Moscow President Boris Yeltsin presided over the greatest slaughter of Russian livestock since Adolf Hitler crossed the Soviet frontier in the summer of 1941. In the five years between 1992 and 1997 19.6 million head of cattle were killed. That compares with 2 million killed during Hitler’s initial invasion, and 16.6 million […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you’re feeling peckish, but the price of fish is too high to swallow, whom do you call? Gennady Timchenko (right image), that’s who – the man who has settled with several English newspapers out of court that he’s not a friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and benefits commercially in […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow For those with a taste for the burlesque, politicians speaking for the cash interests of the perishable food trade are hard to match. The smaller the politician’s country of origin, the louder the petomane, and the bigger the pratfall. Russia’s chief food inspector Gennady Onishchenko (left image) yesterday ordered the ban […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow A fleet of between 200 and 1,000 vessels will be required to carry newly released Russian wheat and other grains to markets in the Mediterranean and East Asia, grain traders and port sources have told Fairplay, in the wake of the May 28 order from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin stole […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Gennady Onishchenko, the Russian government’s chief food inspector and head of the federal inspection agency Rospotrebnadzor, has ordered a ban on imports of vegetables, announcing: “we urge the population not to buy fresh vegetables from Germany and Spain. Buy Russian production.” But this time the notorious protectionist of Russian farm, food […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Despite the enormous publicity for Glencore’s initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange this month, and participation in the underwriting and book-running of the Russian state savings bank Sberbank, the massive Glencore prospectus says almost nothing about the trading company’s Russian business. And on the key question grain traders […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow On Wednesday, the Russian Grain Union, representing most of the country’s grain traders and exporters, said that if the export embargo on grain is extended from July 1 to the year’s end, the expanding surpluses of grain in the southwestern growing regions will force domestic prices down to the Rb3,000 ($107) […]

by John Helmer - Friday, April 29th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Vadim Moshkovich – Senator from Belgorod, owner of Rusagro (aka Ros Agro Plc), which sold its shares in London last week — has been singing this golden oldie from The Searchers (1963). Don’t miss the last chorus line: “I’ll never ever let you go…Oooooo, Oooooo, Ooooo” Rusagro was 94% owned by […]

by John Helmer - Monday, April 18th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russia’s grain traders have applied to Mother Nature (image centre) for help in deciding whether Russia’s weather this spring and summer will be so mild, sunny and also wet as to produce a bumper harvest , allowing exports to resume and Russia to retake its place as the third largest grain […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Want to throw rice at the bride and groom — Krasnodar will be glad to fill your order. For starting this January, Russia has become a net rice exporter for the first time in its history. According to Alexander Korbut, spokesman for the Russian Grain Council, about 100,000 tonnes of short-grain […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
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