by John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The High Court in London has the duty to set the standard for distinguishing between Russian honesty and chicanery (the British varieties too). But it lacks the power. If the court had that, the Prime Minister, the House of Commons, the Secret Intelligence Service, the BBC, Oxford University Press, and the […]

Filed under: DwB, Oligarchs by Editor - Sunday, February 9th, 2020
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By John Helmer, Moscow In fear of  the Central Bank and the General Prosecutor investigating evidence of embezzlement, racketeering and fraud,  Boris Mints (lead image), a collector of  Russian painting of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, has fled to the UK.  How Mints turned his proceeds into artworks was one of the […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Tuesday, June 19th, 2018
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with In the history of war-fighting in Europe,  what state has waged war when its state treasurer, state banker, and state auditor were opposed to the war; aimed to cut the army off from the money required for troops and weapons; and schemed between themselves to sign terms of capitulation with the […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Monday, May 30th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with One of the peculiarities of the NATO alliance’s sanctions war against Russian businessmen is that the biggest of Russia’s bank robbers and corporate thieves have not been targeted by the press nor by the US Treasury. Indeed, the more criminal their conduct, and the more money they have stolen from Russia, […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Monday, March 21st, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The first Moscow casualties of the US and European plan targeting President Vladimir Putin and  triggering Kremlin regime change have been revealed in the release over the past ten days of three  presidential decrees and a half-dozen implementing orders from the Russian prime ministry.   The breaking news is that there […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Thursday, March 10th, 2022
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by John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Vadim Belyaev (lead image)  is not the first Russian bank robber to take Cyprus citizenship on his way to safe haven in New York City, and then find himself facing a billion-dollar recovery lawsuit from his Russian pursuers in New York Supreme Court.  He is, however, the very first to attempt […]

Filed under: Oligarchs, UK-Russia by Editor - Thursday, September 10th, 2020
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by John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Russian pictures for which the owners paid millions of pounds or dollars aren’t put up for sale, and buyers won’t pay that much money in the London auction houses if the auction rooms have been closed and are likely to stay that way for the rest of the year. But this […]

Filed under: Russian Culture by Editor - Thursday, June 4th, 2020
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By John Helmer, Moscow Botanists can’t say for certain how many hoary old chestnuts, if planted in the right conditions, will turn into a stand of Castanea sativa; that’s the botanical name for chestnut trees. It’s more certain that when Oxford University recently published a book of interviews with eighty wealthy Russians, conducted by a […]

Filed under: Oligarchs by Editor - Wednesday, September 5th, 2018
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By John Helmer, Moscow When cynical and unscrupulous men are desperate, they become as predictable as if they were principled. The difference between such men is hard to tell. Not since the Alaska Purchase of 1867 have the rulers of Moscow and Washington been as desperate to sell something to each other for a price […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Monday, July 2nd, 2018
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By John Helmer, Moscow One shadow hanging over the Russian art market was dispelled in London this week when the British Government’s media campaign against wealthy Russians failed to deter record sales of Russian artworks at the leading London auction houses. Together, sales by Christie’s, Sotheby’s, MacDougall’s, and Bonhams fetched £21.7 million. That is three […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Thursday, June 7th, 2018
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