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By John Helmer, Moscow There is rule on corruption which everyone in public office in every corner of the world knows – you mustn’t use your office to advance your private profit. When he was Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov was not supposed to put lucrative city business in the way of himself or his […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow There are 7,018 pages in the four-volume paper print of Lord Leveson’s report on the ethics and practices of the British press. But just three references to Russia. One of them is a reflection on press freedom in primitive Russia and Ethiopia, compared with civilized UK by Alexander Lebedev, owner of […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Negotiations are under way between Pacific Andes of Hong Kong, and its Singapore subsidiary China Fishery Group, with Russian Sea, the leading Russian fishing fleet operator, to resolve longstanding conflict between Chinese and Russians over access to waters in Russia’s exclusive economic zone, and to fish catch quotas. Under Russian law, […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow If you believe that in July 1941, a few days after the start of the German invasion, Lavrenty Beria was telling Josef Stalin that one of their NKVD agents had gotten her information “from the horse’s mouth, as the peasants say”, this book is for you. Actually, the expression is American […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Blimps long ago lost their value as a means of cargo transportation, military reconnaissance, or anti-aircraft defence; whilst the helium that fills them – more safely than the combustible hydrogen gas which brought down the Hindenburg in 1937 – is sharply increasing its value in other applications. But the US, which […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow The state-owned tanker company Sovcomflot is to avoid the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for its initial public offering (IPO). Instead, it is reviving a decade-old plan of former chief executive Dmitry Skarga and will attempt to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). A source in a position […]