Analysis By John Helmer in Moscow In the final hours of the Congress of Peoples Deputies last week, President Yeltsin signed a letter urging Congress to grant him unusual new powers to override parliamentary votes. Attached to the letter was the President’s legislative proposal, a draft law entitled “On the Government of the Russian Federation”. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 28th, 1992
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By John Helmer in Moscow A month ago, the Russian Market Research Company released results of an unusual nationwide survey of householders, suggesting Russians are better off than they admit, and spend much more money than their official income. This has bolstered government claims that the economy has begun to turn around, and that prosperity […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, April 25th, 1992
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Peter Pan of Russian reform, Boris Nemtsov, went to battle this week with Captain Hook at the Railways Ministry. Reality won. Nemtsov proved petulance is not political magic. The railways are as natural a monopoly as Captain Hook was a blackguard. They are also, as the new Railways Minister, […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, April 18th, 1992
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Vice President of Russia, Mr Alexander Rutskoi, has defended the proposed constitution drawn up by the Constitutional Commission, and dismissed criticism that his differences with President Boris Yeltsin amount to a call for replacing the present government. Mr Rutskoi, who was elected with Mr Yeltsin in Russia’s first presidential […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 2nd, 1992
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By John Helmer in Moscow A new Russian trade strategy, announced this week in Tokyo, gives priority to the growth economies of Asia and the Pacific. The Tokyo presentation by First Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, Dr Sergei Glazyev, follows the visit to Beijing earlier this month of the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 18th, 1992
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