Last night I walked past the Russian Embassy, a few doors down from where I live in Tallinn. A silent crowd had gathered, holding candles. The mourning of Andrei Navalny was profoundly sad and moving… (View Post)

Navalny has died. A bitter day for anyone who hopes that Russia will emerge from the Putin death spiral. (View Post)

Sorry to hear it Mike, and as someone with a terminally ill parent, I can only echo your sage advice: make the best of whatever time we have left. I always ends soon than you think. (View Post)

All the slavic languages have a rich vocabulary of filth, and the structure of the verbs allows the expression of concepts which are not only physically challenging, but baroque in their intensity. I… (View Post)

Peter the "Great" killed far more people -c 300,000- building the City of St. Petersburg in a swamp. The hypocrisy is faintly comic, and reminds us that the USSR was a formal ally of Nazi G… (View Post)