Excerpts of interview with a journalism school group in Siberia, April 20, 2011 – Where do you work? Moscow, London – What are you working on now?

by John Helmer - Monday, April 25th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow At least two things are obvious about the Wikileaks disclosures on Russia – one is that a great many cables from the US Embassy Moscow are available in the quarter of a million files obtained by the Guardian newspaper of London; the second is that very few of these have been […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The paucity of materials on Russia in the Wikileaks archive revealed so far is odd, considering the significance of Russia as a potential threat in the US Government’s global threat assessments.

by John Helmer - Friday, February 18th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alisher Usmanov’s enthusiasm for the earnings in the bush has always been more infectious than his success in getting his hand on the bird.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Monday, November 8th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow One of the lucrative carry trades is about to be chopped. A new report by the UK market regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has warned that it intends to crack down on links between companies preparing share market sales and financial media reporters and columnists, the effect of which, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 27th, 2010
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The Harmonics Vuvuzela for the season’s purest noise goes to Maxim Fedotov, who led the Moscow City Symphony Orchestra on June 16 in performances that included Ravel’s Bolero. Fedotov placed a snare drum at the front of the stage, and assigned the drummer the virtuoso noise-making part, obliging the rest of the sound-makers gathered behind […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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On December 14, 2008, as then President George Bush was speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Mountazer al-Zaidi rose abruptly from about twelve feet away, lifted his right arm, and tossed a shoe at the president’s head while shouting in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 14th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Depending on how fanciful you wish to be, the Flying Dutchman is either a reference to the nautical refraction phenomenon that makes phantom ships appear at sea, like mirages, in conditions of temperature inversion; or else it’s a tale of a half-mad Dutch sea captain, whose 17th century navigational ineptitude […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow On February 24, at the headquarters of Russia’s state media, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the offices of Russia Today, an English-language cable and satellite broadcaster. He was escorted by Svetlana Mironyuk, the head of the Russian News and Information Agency (RIA-Novosti), an administrative holding for state media; in the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
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