Dances With Bears

By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with To understand President Vladimir Putin’s recent public statements on the Russian economy, the Tuapse refinery fire, and security controls for the internet, the question is – does he believe what all Russians know to be obviously misstated and mistaken? Does Putin understand he is discrediting himself with Russian voters as the […]

By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with There is a 2,500-year old message about who is strong, who is weak in politics and war, and what the latter can do to defend themselves from the former. The message comes from Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War. Written between five and ten years after the events described, […]

By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with April 25, ANZAC Day, is a national celebration in Australia commemorating the World War 1 campaign, ordered by Winston Churchill in London, for Australian and New Zealand (NZ) forces to land at Gallipoli, and attempt to march on the Ottoman Empire capital at Istanbul. It has become the equivalent of […]

By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The combination of personal sanctions and asset seizures against the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska (lead image),  corporate sanctions against his Rusal and EN+ companies, and the cutoff of alumina feedstock supplies from Australia and the Ukraine have done visible damage to Rusal’s Hong Kong-listed share price (lead image).
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with In the Stone Ages, as President Donald Trump (lead image) calls ancient history, it was expected that if a man wanted somebody enough, he would grab them by the short hairs to make them scream their compliance. The Stone Age painters’ records on cave walls,  which have been discovered to date, […]