* Russia. For some reason Russia has been getting a lot of stick in the media lately. I suppose now the cold war is over everyone is getting nostalgic for the days when you could accuse the USSR of anything that came to mind. I was personally puzzled as a young teenager by the west's propaganda. On the one hand the USSR was to be feared for the mighty efficiency and technology of its armed forces who were ready to sweep into England and put us all in gualags, on the other hand the USSR couldn't build a car that didn't breakdown within minutes of purchase and all the domestic equipment was crap.

* Russia never seems to have been given any credit for its part in WWII. The Americans often jibe that they pulled Britain out of the shit and won the war. Any serious reading suggests to the contrary that if Hitler hadn't been so dumb as to invade Russia then there would have been no Eastern front and any attempt to get over the channel to France would have been met with all those forces fighting desperately to keep the Russians at bay. Its about time we had a 'Thanks for the incredible sacrifice day' for the Russians.

* It might not go amiss to apologise for sending over all those idiot monetarists to completely screw the Russian economy after the communist regime collapsed. Who thought it would be a good idea to go from a centralised, nationalised economy straight to a capitalist economy was a good idea?
I'm no expert so my opinion is worth nothing but it looked like some smart bastard decided to screw them over while their guard was down

* Anyway how can you fault a country whose leader Mr Putin when tackled over democracy by president Bush responds 'Well we don't want a democracy like they have in IRAQ'. (cutting humour wins everytime)