By John Helmer, Moscow The last time President Vladimir Putin publicly criticized Oleg Deripaska, chief executive of United Company Rusal and Russia’s most indebted man, it was at Pikalevo, Leningrad region, in June of 2009. Putin tossed his pen at Deripaska, told him to sign a back-pay agreement, and demanded his pen back. Referring to […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 19th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia for the past nine years, is almost as well-known for rushing to the rescue of Russian companies in trouble in Africa, as the payback for the favour is unknown. Still, the Lavrov Doctrine is the first major change to have been introduced in the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow It is quite clear that the Russian Government objects to an international agreement to stop fishing for the Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. What is far from clear is why. On the surface, the Russian fleet caught just 522 tonnes of the species from the Ross Sea […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you like eating river pike, apply to President Vladimir Putin who recently landed a big one (image left). If you like ocean seabass, this story is for you, especially if what your fishmonger calls Chilean Seabass is in fact toothfish; depending on how cold the waters are in which it […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, August 1st, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Moe (Moses Horwitz) of Three Stooges fame stuck his fingers so often in Curly’s (Jerome Horwitz) eyes, it was Curly the audiences loved — until he died of too much drinking and eating. No chance that if Russia’s President Vladimir Putin keeps giving French President Francois Hollande the two-fingered, two-eyed poke, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 22nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow According to the announcement issued yesterday in Moscow, Ahmad Mohamed Al-Sayed (centre), head of the Qatar emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, was appointed by Kirill Dimitriev (bottom right), head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), to join the RDIF international advisory board. An application by Dmitriev for several billion dollars of […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow By the conventional polling and political measures, President Vladimir Putin ought to be the most relaxed figure at the G8 summit meeting in Ireland. If he wanted to, he might look straight at the cameras and tell the world he shares their opposition to starting another war in the string of […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” – Jesus Christ After the ancient Jewish preachers spoke of improbability as elephants trying to navigate needles, the Christians slimmed down to camels. But there was […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the research for its profile on Alisher Usmanov, BBC Radio-4 was told by its sources in Russia that claims Usmanov is close to the Kremlin have been invented; and that Usmanov has never been granted a personal audience with President (Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin. The BBC programme was broadcast on […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Pavel (Pavlik) Morozov, aged 14, was murdered on September 3, 1932, along with his 9-year old brother, Fyodor. They were stabbed to death. Four people were convicted of the crimes – their grandfather Sergei and cousin Danila did the stabbing; uncle Arseny plotted the crime beforehand; grandmother Kseniya covered it up […]

by John Helmer - Monday, April 8th, 2013
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