By John Helmer, Moscow The threat of a total ban on the multi-billion dollar frozen chicken trade to Russia, commencing January 1, has been dropped by the head of Russia’s Trade and Inspection Agency (Rospotrebnadzor, RPN), Gennady Onishchenko. Just as he gave no reason for threatening the ban a few days ago, Onishchenko has given […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow An order by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to extend the current ban on wheat, rye, barley and corn exports until July 1 next year — announced last week — will make an exception to allow Russian millers and traders to ship milled flour abroad. Allowing 1.4 tonnes of wheat to make […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Runaway inflation and unemployment rates are the conventional killers of campaigns for reelection in the democracies, such as the US and the UK. But in the autocracies, the rising price of bread (or rice), leading to hoarding, usually does the trick.

by John Helmer - Friday, September 3rd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow An order of the Russian Government has this week lifted last month’s total ban on grain exports, but stopped well short of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s forecast that significant export shipments of Russian grain may be allowed later in the season.

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow It is now official – this month of July is the hottest in Moscow since the Russian Meteorological Service began keeping regular daily records and issuing temperature measurement bulletins. That was back in 1872. Since then the heat-wave years have occurred in 1885, 1920, 1938, 1939, 2001, and 2002.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Gennady Onishchenko, the Russian government’s chief health inspector, has issued a new diktat, claiming that bottles of imported wine have been found to contain dibutyl phthalate. There’s a catch, though. Onishchenko’s spokesman refuses to say if he has also banned pencil erasers, plastic toys, and nail polish, all of which […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 19th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presided at the original button ceremony in Geneva on March 6, 2009, on the button she presented Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was written the word, in Latin letters, PEREGRUZKA. In Russian, that doesn’t mean RESET, as much of the subsequent reporting of the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Gennady Onishchenko (picture) would flog a dead horse to protect domestic product market share against foreign imports, and that’s as good as protecting Russian consumer health, even better perhaps. Onishchenko saved Russians from the perils of Belarus milk last June and then in January he rescued the state from American […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Never let it be doubted that sunshine comes out of the EBRD’s arse after all – along with $50 million. According to a June 23 announcement from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) headquarters in London, the bank is proposing to lend the Joint Fruit Company (JFC), Russia’s dominant […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow A news agency report from Cairo yesterday, claiming the Egyptian health authorities have quarantined a new Russian grain shipment in port, has been disputed by the Russian inspection agency, and by grain shippers in Moscow, who are not sure whether the action signals a resumption of last year’s weevil wars […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
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