Over the more than four centuries from the time of Ivan the Terrible, Russia expanded an average of fifty square miles per day.
That is from the extraordinary new Stephen Kotkin biography of Stalin, titled Stalin. The first volume of 949 pp. brings the reader up only until 1928. A lot still happened after that. Now it is India's and China's turn to take over the land down under - Australia as naive in 21st century as some of the Mittleuropean clans in 1st century ;-) soil is everything!
Putin stands far away from Abbott in this group photo
G20 leaders line up for group photo. ( Russia enacts ‘draconian’ law for bloggers and online media BBC) World leaders have wrapped up the first day of the G 20 summit with a working dinner and performance at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art.
Earlier, US president Barack Obama used his address University of Queensland students to pledge a contribution of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has urged world leaders to speak from the heart, rather than a script, at this weekend's summit
Thousands of delegates and helpers are fitting in nicely with the Aussie drinking culture, cooling down with beers in hand.
G 20 Stories
For Australians it's not so bad - most of the time - to be so far away, so overlooked, so seemingly insignificant as to almost never factor in major international news. The lifestyle makes up for it.
But occasionally, there's an awkward, pimply youth moment so embarrassing that it does sting. Like when 19 of the world's most important leaders visit for a global summit and Prime Minister Tony Abbott opens their retreat Saturday with a whinge (Aussie for whine) about his doomed efforts to get his fellow Australians to pay $7 to see a doctor.
And then he throws in a boast that his government repealed the country's carbon tax, standing out among Western nations as the one willing to reverse progress on climate change - just days after the United States and China reached a landmark climate change deal Observations
The Path to Power WSJ. 150th anniversary of Sherman’s march through Georgia