Trueversy

YELTSIN — RORSCHACH BLOT ON RUSSIAN HISTORY

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:37 +0000

By John Helmer in Moscow
For a brief moment, the death of Boris Yeltsin in April allowed his supporters and critics to reappear in full cry; particularly his supporters, whose attacks on the Putin administration have failed to attract an audience outside Embassy Row, and who are naturally nostalgic for the days when their bons mots drew better remuneration.
Since almost no Russian or western correspondent remains in Moscow today, who reported on the Gorbachev, the Yeltsin, and the Putin administrations, the Yeltsin obituary columns were largely an exercise in wishful retro-thinking — and exhibitionism.
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THE STALINS OF SOUND

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:36 +0000

By John Helmer in Moscow
It’s a pity Vladimir Lenin was tone deaf, and dismissed music (along with chess) as an entertainment for the ruling class. Had he an ear and taste for classical music (like Karl Marx, who was keen on Beethoven, and Leon Trotsky, who loved Verdi), he might have devised a revolutionary doctrine for the performing arts. This could have protected Russia from the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich the cellist, Nikita Mikhalkov the filmmaker, Valery Gergiev the conductor, and X the theatre director.
I regret I am obliged to avoid using X’s, or his Moscow theatre’s real name, because he and his colleagues are so thin-skinned, so despotic, and so vengeful, they brook no criticism, and would react by attacking the livelihood of a member of my family.
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AN ELEGY ON PICKING UP ELEPHANT SHIT

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:33 +0000

By John Helmer in Moscow
If life were a circus, then the only reason a contemplative man would walk behind an elephant in a ring, wielding bucket and shovel, would be for the money, not for the laughs.
John Lloyd, a onetime Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times, has made many of his colleagues and readers laugh at him. But it was his eulogy upon the death of ex-President Boris Yeltsin, just published by the Financial Times, that has been convincing. Lloyd hasn’t been clowning all this time for laughs. He’s been putting shit in a bucket for the money.
And good money it was, certainly when his then wife headed the Moscow office of a well-known English law firm, and Lloyd filled his Moscow despatches with tales of the good fortune falling from the parapets of the Kremlin for her clientele. There was the odd and embarrassing pratfall; the time, for example, when Lloyd reported, and the FT printed, that Yegor Gaidar had been voted in as prime minister, when that favourite of Lloyd, his wife’s law firm, and the FT had in fact been trounced by Victor Chernomyrdin. Thus did Gaidar’s high political career end – in retrospect, we can now say, for good – while Lloyd was telling the FT audience the reverse.
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Deripaska Under Pressure in Mega Aluminium Merger

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:31 +0000

By John Helmer in Moscow
Oleg Deripaska is under unexpected personal pressure, at home and abroad, just when his plan to take control of one of the largest bauxite and aluminium producers in the world is close to final government approval. And that is exactly why the trouble for Deripaska is growing now.
Russian government authorization this month of the creation of a monopoly aluminium concern, integrating domestic and foreign bauxite, alumina, and aluminium production assets, has followed a no-objection ruling from the European Commission (EC) in Brussels. The unconditional ruling was issued by the EC on February 1.
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Bistro, Bistro Cried the Russian to Sarkozy

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:26 +0000

By John Helmer in Moscow
Did Nicolas Sarkozy, the small rightwing candidate for President of France, benefit from the brief imprisonment in Lyon of one Russian billionaire, and from the award of a medal, days later in Paris, to another Russian billionaire, who happened to be the business partner of the first?
And was Sarkozy helped by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, ministre blanchisseur, official custodian of French culture, receiver of kickbacks, and arranger of unorthodox donations to presidential campaign chests?
In short, on January 30, when Donnedieu de Vabres awarded the medal of Officer of the Legion of Arts and Letters to Vladimir Potanin, was this the end to an ingenious quartet of hostage-taking and ransom on the French side, procuring and precious metals on the Russian?
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New case for US reparations in Laos

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:21 +0000

It is estimated it will take 3,000 years to clear Laos of all the explosive remnants left behind from United States bombers over 30 years ago. More than 20,000 people have died from unexploded ordnance since conflict ended. Now, new questions are being asked about whether the US government should pay much more for the damage it has caused. - Melody Kemp (Sep 3, ‘10)

MARKET RAP : Confused - but forward

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:16 +0000

Asia’s stock markets put on a positive showing over the past week, with Australia and its near 4% gain leading the way and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index staging a recovery. But muddle and outside forces, rather than confidence, were the driving forces. R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week’s markets.

BOOK REVIEW : Al-Qaeda and counter-terrorism

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:15 +0000

Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 by Thomas Hegghammer An engaging study of the rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, this book traces the movements evolution from a Pan-Islamic volunteer force in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to a fermentation period in Saudi Arabia and finally its emergence as a global jihadi network. It also shows how Saudi leaders have successfully used softer techniques to undermine al-Qaeda’s mass appeal. - Brian M Downing (Sep 3, ‘10)

THE MOGAMBO GURU : Bernanke blows his cover

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:31:10 +0000

That cheaper goods and services are bad for us is the only conclusion we can draw from US Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke’s concern that price inflation isn’t running fast enough - in utter violation of the Fed’s purpose in life: expressly to prevent inflation in prices.

U.S. Police Shoot And Kill Terrorists - Ecologist Holding Hostages at Discovery Channel

trueversy — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:30:57 +0000

Police shot and killed a gunman after he took three people hostage Wednesday afternoon at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters here, officials said.