- Print This Post Print This Post

My beloved Russian died on December 9. When he needed breath and his heart was failing, there were five who prevented me from reaching him. I grieve for him. For them, another reckoning. If you will take to the mountain road, it is possible to breathe and sing this song.

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Nathaniel Rothschild’s (centre) libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail and Associated Newspapers, due to commence on January 23 in the High Court in London, is now unravelling even more Russian oligarch secrets. As they crack open, so do suspicions of even more inexplicable involvement by Rothschild’s friend, Lord Peter Mandelson, than […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Russian labour unions have been crippled since the end of the Soviet Union. With the exception of the coalminers and the seafarers, they have been incapable of defending their members’ wages, terms of employment contracts, or work safety standards. This week the Seafarers Union of Russia – affiliated with the International […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Homer accords with the latest in canine science. Because Odysseus raised his Argos as a pup from birth, the dog fixed on him as devotedly as he would, had his canine mother, or another human being, done the nurturing within the first ten weeks of the dog’s life. Odysseus, far too […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Constructivism, that combination of industrial design ideas applied to post-revolutionary Russian urban growth requirements, has been struggling to survive the assault of commercial real estate development since 1991. The current exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Art, entitled “Building the Revolution” reveals how many of the buildings of the Constructivist era […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow In the interior designer trade, there is a standard known inside Russia and the world over as the vomit test. The World of Interiors usually passes; Architectural Digest often fails. This isn’t what it sounds like – no disparagement intended of the design or designer as such. No Sirree. The test […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow After claims a week ago that the Daily Mail newspaper and its publisher were expecting to go to trial next month on a libel claim by Nathaniel Rothschild relating to the Russian aluminium business, it has now been revealed that Rothschild has exposed an even more secret business deal he was […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Nathaniel Rothschild (right, pointing) has told the UK High Court that a London newspaper report claiming he had tried ingratiating himself with Oleg Deripaska (centre) was defamatory, and that as a result of the publication he had been “seriously damaged in his character and reputation and has suffered considerable distress, embarrassment […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

By John Helmer, Moscow Christopher Hitchens, who died on Thursday at 62 years of age, described me many years ago as “an old personal enemy of mine”. Hitchens wore the inimical declarations of others as self-awarded Victoria Crosses, as if his bravado under the fire he inflicted deserved more than the money he was paid […]

- Print This Post Print This Post

Э.Мацкявичюс: Владимир Владимирович, есть вопрос, поступивший на сайт программы, он, отчасти, продолжает тему, поднятую Александром Андреевичем: “Читаю сообщение о суде в Лондоне и думаю, когда украденные у народа деньги перестанут обогащать Англию?” Я точно не поручусь, но, видимо, имеется в виду суд между Абрамовичем и Березовским.