By John Helmer, Moscow Last month Oleg Deripaska authorized a Washington lobbyist he employs to submit to the US Department of Justice the claim that Deripaska meets with American “businesspeople to assess economic development in the United States in connection with his role as an economic advisor to the President of the Russian Federation.” The […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 17th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow A donation of $2,500 to the “Obama Victory Fund”, the US president’s election campaign fund, was made on October 12, 2012, by an American lobbyist engaged by Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. This is according to a filing last month by the US agent acting for Lavrov named Adam Waldman. He […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 14th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Along the eastern Mediterranean shore, between Tyre, Lebanon, and Tartous, Syria, it’s 191 kilometres as the crow flies – make that as the drone flies. Tyre was the site of one of the great tests of military technology, tactics, and nerve when the Greek, Alexander the Great, besieged the then Phoenician […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 21st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Blimps long ago lost their value as a means of cargo transportation, military reconnaissance, or anti-aircraft defence; whilst the helium that fills them – more safely than the combustible hydrogen gas which brought down the Hindenburg in 1937 – is sharply increasing its value in other applications. But the US, which […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 5th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The state-owned tanker company Sovcomflot is to avoid the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for its initial public offering (IPO). Instead, it is reviving a decade-old plan of former chief executive Dmitry Skarga and will attempt to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). A source in a position […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the US Department of Commerce has revealed that the new reference prices it set early this month for imports to the US of Russian-made rolled steel products will rise by 47% over the prevailing regime. However, the US evidence suggests the impact on Russian exporters […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Corruption is a global problem. That’s one of the opening lines in the US Department of Justice’s guide to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the law enacted in Washington in 1977 to prohibit US individuals and companies from offering inducements of value to the officials of foreign governments. “Corruption impedes economic […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The result of the US presidential election, giving Barack Obama victory in both the popular vote and an even bigger one in the Electoral College vote by state, shows that one traditional rule of thumb still applies — incumbents must be down by a 5% margin in the polls at the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow When Oleg Deripaska and the Rusal group of companies attack one of their most senior executives for a nine-year old crime that wasn’t, the question that arises is: what does the target know about Deripaska and his methods that may be so dangerous, his credibility and his livelihood should be destroyed? […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 25th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The first international trade dispute involving Russian exports to be tabled since Russia was accepted in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a claim by a US steelmaker that Alexei Mordashov’s Severstal is dumping hot-rolled steel products in the US market at a price below the domestic American price. That at […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, June 10th, 2012
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