(Estonia on the left, Russia on the right, NATO ends in the middle of the bridge).Walter Mayr writes in Spiegel Online on the growing divide inside NATO over expansion...only he does it with the flair of a travel writer. Larry Wolff would be so proud.
"In Narva, [Estonia and Russia] face off like warring sisters, the medieval castles on the Russian and Estonian sides of the river marking the border between the two countries. On the eastern bank is the Ivangorod fortress, established by Czar Ivan II, with its defiant walls topped by battlements. Facing it on the Estonian side, under a tin weather vane is the Hermann Castle...In the city of Narva, where Stalin had apartment buildings and factories built over the ruins of blown-up Baroque houses, 96 percent of residents are ethnic Russians. Only 40 percent have an Estonian passport."
2 comments:
My favorite line:
"a mixture of incense and gun smoke: the Polish essence."
Is the author making a comment about Poles clinging to guns and religion? ;)
Oohhh, nice call.
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