By John Helmer, Moscow Until now the principal reason Russian businessmen ran for election to parliament was to secure legislator’s immunity from criminal prosecution. Lobbying their business interests into legislation, or drawing money out of the federal budget into their company projects and pockets, didn’t require getting elected or taking a parliamentary seat.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
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1. It looks like there’s going to be a hot autumn in Moscow? Or is that just an illusion due to very vocal electioneering and of course the media accompaniment?

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Michael just isn’t cracked up to be George. The warrior qualities of Russia’s patron saint could come in handy in politics – aim, endurance, fearlessness – but Mikhail Prokhorov has managed in his three-month political career to demonstrate their opposites, and to prove – stunningly if you calculate his personal wealth […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 19th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The state-owned Russian tanker company Sovcomflot revealed this week that its profits are sinking, and that despite months of effort Morgan Stanley, Sovcomflot’s banker and broker, has been unable to attract market demand for its shares. As the much delayed privatization and initial public offering (IPO) of Sovcomflot shares fail once […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 15th, 2011
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  Marshal Sergei Fyodorovich Akhromeyev   “Everything I have worked for throughout my life is being destroyed.”   — August 24, 1991

by John Helmer - Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow According to the Kremlin website, on July 11 President Dmitry Medvedev met with “representatives of major private and state-owned companies”. The Kremlin website has identified them:

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 14th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 20th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow It’s impossible to celebrate independence of oneself. It is possible to take leave of your senses. День России, Russia Day, for which Russians take off today, is one of those cynical inventions for which Boris Yeltsin was responsible. It was on June 12, 1990, when, manipulating his control of the Russian […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 13th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow When one of the cleverest of international business intelligence agents retires from the secret world to write thrillers for a well-known London publisher, there are bound to be many in Moscow who are curious to know what he chooses to reveal about Russia’s oligarchs, their business practices and personal habits. If […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
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In an apparently unscripted exchange with reporters in Kursk last Thursday, Mikhail Prokhorov corrected the earlier impression he had given a fortnight before that, if elected by Russian voters in December at the head of the Right Cause party, he may not take his seat in parliament. However, the garble reported by Interfax adds to […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 6th, 2011
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