Speaking of Russia.....

Pravda, or what's left of it, turned 100 on May 5th, and here's its web page with
brief summaries of longer articles found on other pages. Its English isn't the greatest, but neither is my Russian, tovarishch.

I discovered this while seeking information about the possible or proposed alliance between Russia and China and India, which seems to be a pet idea of Putin's, but may not be meeting with much serious consideration in either China or India, because both of those nations are trading partners of the USA, and wish to remain friends with America. Putin, on the other hand, seems to be entertaining dreams of re-assembling the old Soviet bloc and adding China and India to it to form an organization which would oppose American interests in Asia. This if true would be a renewal of the old 'Cold War', and another huge waste of time, money and the resources of the world, all of which are inexorably diminishing due to our past stupidities. And it's true: those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Is this what we really want?

Note:

For more on Putin's 'empire-building' dream, Google the term 'Primakov's Triangle'. It is an idea he borrowed from Primakov, who wasn't taken seriously.

Perhaps one reason former Prime Minister Primakov wasn't taken seriously on his triangle proposal was because of the relative sizes of the populations of the three nations. Russia is one of the most sparsely populated nations on earth, and if they enter into a close relationship with China or India, they might well be swallowed up, or in Star Trek terms, "Resistance is futile - you will be assimilated!" I have the feeling that the makers of the world's best Vodka might not appreciate that sort of thing. I wouldn't either. So if Putin is half as smart as he would like us to believe, he will re-think this and realize it isn't such a red-hot idea after all. His precious 'fatherland' (Whatever happened to 'Mother Russia', anyway? When did she get a sex change operation?) could easily be picked clean by those billions next door, leaving him wishing he had left well enough alone, and stayed independent.