By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with When I was ten years old, I was tall for my age and had an unusually powerful first serve for a boy.    After observing me hit a few practice balls, a famous international tennis star turned coach told my mother that if she handed me over to him every day […]

by Editor - Monday, July 11th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The Poles have always had a serious problem with their neighbours.   They have the Germans on their western flank, the Russians on their eastern flank, and inside their borders there used to be the Jews, but now there are the Ukrainians. In September 1939 there were about 3.3 million Polish […]

by Editor - Wednesday, June 29th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with On June 13, for the first time since the Russian military operation began in the Ukraine, a detailed Russian intelligence assessment has been published in Moscow of Polish strategy for the future of Ukraine. This follows several weeks of brief statements by Russian security and intelligence officials claiming the government in […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 14th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The Cossacks are known for many things, but not for being Roman Catholics like the Galicians of western Ukraine around Lvov, or like the Poles around Cracow. Originally, the Cossacks swore off eating horsemeat, veal, hare, and pork. Pork is the principal meat of Lvivska (lead image, right) and Krakowska (left), the […]

by Editor - Sunday, June 12th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with There ought to be a law, or at least a sanction –  tenure cancelled, travel visa blocked – for American experts on Russia who claim to know from their reading of other American experts on Russia why Russia does things, and what will happen next. Thane Gustafson, a Georgetown University professor […]

by Editor - Wednesday, June 8th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Before presidential dementia became fashionable in the US, there was, Russians used to joke, Leonid Brezhnev. Once on a visit to a hunting lodge not far from Moscow, I was told by the forest ranger that he used to assist in setting up for a Brezhnev shoot. It was very late […]

by Editor - Monday, May 23rd, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with The war plan of the US and the European allies is destroying the Russian market for traditional French perfumes, the profits of the French and American conglomerates which own the best-known brands, the bonuses of their managers, and the dividends of their shareholders. The odour  of these losses is too […]

by Editor - Wednesday, May 18th, 2022
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By Nikolai Storozhenko, introduced and translated by John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with This week President Joseph Biden stopped at an Illinois farm to say he’s going to help the  Ukraine ship 20 million tonnes of wheat and corn out of storage into export, thereby relieving  grain shortages in the international markets and lowering bread prices around […]

by Editor - Friday, May 13th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Antonio Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), who attempted last month  to arrange the escape from Russian capture of Ukrainian soldiers and NATO commanders,  knowing they had committed war crimes. He was asked to explain; he refuses.    Trevor Cadieu is a Canadian lieutenant-general who was appointed […]

by Editor - Tuesday, May 10th, 2022
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By Vlad Shlepchenko, introduced & translated by John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with The more western politicians announce pledges of fresh weapons for the Ukraine, the more Russian military analysts explain what options their official sources are considering to destroy the arms before they reach the eastern front, and to neutralize Poland’s role as the NATO  hub […]

by Editor - Thursday, May 5th, 2022
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