By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with On June 13, for the first time since the Russian military operation began in the Ukraine, a detailed Russian intelligence assessment has been published in Moscow of Polish strategy for the future of Ukraine. This follows several weeks of brief statements by Russian security and intelligence officials claiming the government in […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 14th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The Cossacks are known for many things, but not for being Roman Catholics like the Galicians of western Ukraine around Lvov, or like the Poles around Cracow. Originally, the Cossacks swore off eating horsemeat, veal, hare, and pork. Pork is the principal meat of Lvivska (lead image, right) and Krakowska (left), the […]

by Editor - Sunday, June 12th, 2022
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by John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with A new presidential decree issued yesterday by the Kremlin ends the special measures for foreign currency and capital control issued since the start of the special military operation in the Ukraine on February 24.   Instead, a special commission of government officials and the board of directors of the Russian Central […]

by Editor - Friday, June 10th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with There ought to be a law, or at least a sanction –  tenure cancelled, travel visa blocked – for American experts on Russia who claim to know from their reading of other American experts on Russia why Russia does things, and what will happen next. Thane Gustafson, a Georgetown University professor […]

by Editor - Wednesday, June 8th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with It was almost a century ago that a Chicago adman gave the Kellogg Company the idea of selling breakfast cereal  made of puffed rice by telling children that the rice grains cried out as the spoon scooped them  from the milk towards their mouths – SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! That’s what the […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Anna Akhmatova, the most famous poetess in the Russian language, will be 133 on June 23. Akhmatova was the nom de plume she chose because her father said his family name would be disgraced by her publishing her poems.  The family name was Gorenko, and she was born in Bolshoi Fontan,  Odessa. A […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with A German walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender tells him: “That’ll be 100 euros.” The German is in shock. “What do you mean, 100 euros? Yesterday it was only 10!” “Well today it’s 100.” “But why 100, dammit?!”

by Editor - Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
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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 […]

by Editor - Monday, May 30th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The Russian regime-change theory motivating US sanctions against the Russian oligarchs is that they will trigger a palace coup in which the oligarchs will arrange a bullet for President Vladimir Putin’s head, and in return the US will give them back the keys to their yachts, mansions, and offshore bank accounts. […]

by Editor - Monday, May 30th, 2022
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Before presidential dementia became fashionable in the US, there was, Russians used to joke, Leonid Brezhnev. Once on a visit to a hunting lodge not far from Moscow, I was told by the forest ranger that he used to assist in setting up for a Brezhnev shoot. It was very late […]

by Editor - Monday, May 23rd, 2022
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