By John Helmer, Moscow The Kremlin doesn’t want to say so exactly. But right now it is as reluctant to support the Greek Government in its conflict with Germany, as Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Politburo wanted to back the Greek Communist Party during the Greek civil war between 1946 and 1949. So, when Foreign […]

by Editor - Thursday, February 26th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska (left), chief executive of the Russian state aluminium monopoly Rusal, makes a practice of thriving when everyone else is suffering. That’s because the Russian government and the state banks cast a more protective cover over heavy debtors when times are bad than when times are better. Rusal owes $9 […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 24th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Victor Pinchuk, the Ukrainian oligarch who took sides for the European Union (EU) against Russia, is running out of money, company officials admitted last week in a confidential briefing. Pinchuk has been forced to provide his company with $20 million in emergency cash to stave off insolvency, but bondholders and banks […]

by Editor - Sunday, February 22nd, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Central Criminal Court have reported that Nikolai Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian businessman and twice the minister of state for oil and gas licences, is the controlling shareholder of the Ukrainian gas producer Burisma. So what are employees of Igor Kolomoisky, warlord of Dniepropetrovsk and […]

by Editor - Thursday, February 19th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Burisma, an influential Ukrainian oil and gas company with disputed ownership involving Nikolai Zlochevsky and Igor Kolomoisky, is under criminal investigation in the UK. But you wouldn’t know it from a release issued by the company on January 22. According to Burisma, “Britain closed criminal proceedings against the assets of Nikolay […]

by Editor - Thursday, February 19th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow South African government officials have attacked Russia’s bid to supply South Africa’s new nuclear reactor programme, accusing Rosatom, the state nuclear power agency, of imposing financially and legally disadvantageous terms which the South Africans, speaking anonymously, term “scary”. The attack was launched Friday in the Mail & Guardian, a local newspaper […]

by Editor - Monday, February 16th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow It is eleven weeks since President Vladimir Putin visited Brisbane, Australia, for a summit meeting of the G20 states. Putin was escorted in the Coral Sea, east of Brisbane, by a Russian Navy flotilla making the longest deployment of the Russian surface fleet ever displayed. Including Russian submarines shadowing the flotilla, […]

by Editor - Sunday, February 15th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Timothy Colton, a Russia expert at Harvard University in the US, has admitted he has been engaged in research on Russia’s leaders as part of the Pentagon’s top-secret Operation BODY LEADS. Top-secret, that is, until last week’s disclosure of the operation to investigate President Vladimir Putin’s and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s […]

by Editor - Wednesday, February 11th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow The UK High Court has rejected a lawsuit by Rosneft challenging the legality of sanctions against its oilfield operations and international financing. The court has ruled that for testing the legality of the sanctions British law and British courts are subordinate to the European Union, and that Rosneft must try its […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 10th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Polish figures and former officials who have been leading the campaign for Polish financial and military aid to the Ukrainian Government in Kiev may have been lobbyists for Igor Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank, when he was trying to obtain a Polish banking licence. Documents sent and received by PrivatBank, just published in Warsaw, […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 10th, 2015
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