On this day: French invasion of Russia

Better known in Russia as the Patriotic War (Russian Отечественная война, Otechestvennaya Vojna), not to be confused with the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Vojna). The Patriotic War is also occasionally referred to as the "War of 1812", which is not to be confused with the conflict of the same name between the United Kingdom and the United States.

In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon in his own words termed this war the Second Polish War (the "first" Polish war being the War of the Fourth Coalition to liberate Poland from Russia, Prussia and Austria), because one of the official declared goals of this war was the resurrection of the Polish state on territories of former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Spies in …Russia

James Bond and brother found in …Russia according to the Russian authorities! Ilya Zaslavsky is a manager at the TNK-BP oil joint venture, his brother Alexander head of the British Council's Moscow Alumni club. The two, who have joint US and Russian citizenship, were gathering classified data for foreign firms, the FSB said.

The arrests are the latest in a series of incidents which has caused serious frictions between Russia and the UK. British Council work was curtailed last year in a row over the death of ex-security agent Alexander Litvinenko.

I’m wonderinig what ‘M’ says and how I found myself having two …007 posts the very same day!!!

US reassures Russia on ...cold war

The US goverment has offered Russia assurances over parts of a missile shield it wants to deploy in Europe, the Russian foreign minister has said. In an interview, Sergei Lavrov said the US had agreed to allow Moscow to monitor the missile protection system.

Why do I get the feeling that we are all the way back to the cold war? When I was young I remember doing special exersises at school for the day missiles would fallen upon us and the solutions was ...cover under your desk!!!

However these comments came after high level bilateral discussions in Moscow.Russia has opposed US plans to establish missile defence installations in two central European countries.These currently include some interceptor missiles in Poland and an associated radar facility in the Czech Republic.The US says these are needed to counter a potential threat from Iran, though Moscow fears they could be used against Russia.

The picture is not relevant but ...I liked it!