By John Helmer, Moscow The future for Russian goldmining companies this year is bleak — even if the price of gold goes up. The major Russian goldminers are all expected to fail to reach their mine output targets, so they will be able to sell less gold at what are expected to be higher costs. […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The first Dance with Bears appeared in the Russia Journal, edited by Ajay Goyal, a decade ago. It began as a short commentary appearing once or twice a week. The title came from Astolphe de Custine, the greatest observer of Russia ever to be obliged to conceal what he was writing […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In Abakan at this time of year the sun doesn’t rise until 10 in the morning, and by 5 it’s too dark to see much. It’s always been this way in the days which follow Kreshenskiy Moroz (the Feast of the Epiphany, old calendar). This week in the capital of the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russian steel companies have been ordered by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to clean up their emissions, and pay for it out of their owners’ profit stream and dividends. If they agree, he is promising to provide tax and other offsets for their balance-sheets. Is he kidding? According to the press […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the final summing-up of Boris Berezovsky’s case for several billion dollars in stolen goods against Roman Abramovich, the name of Vladimir Putin turns up just four times. The four mentions by Berezovsky’s counsel, Laurence Rabinowitz, during his two-day court presentation on January 17 and 18, are more noteworthy for what […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Turning modestly paid public office into extravagant personal wealth isn’t provably criminal, particularly not if there’s a decent interval of time between performing the first and scoring the second. It may be indecent for elected politicians or officials on the taxpayer’s payroll to intend to turn the one into the other. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
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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 […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 30th, 2011
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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 […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, December 25th, 2011
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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 […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
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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 […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
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