Tarja and cats prepare for round two

Finnish fury as pig farmer switches side

Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, a Dane, has one of the heaviest portfolios; it is stuffed full of food. As even the neophytes in Brussels know, anything to do with food is a political minefield.

Estonia and its annoying big brothers

Estonia has pushed the Russian-German gas pipeline out of its territorial waters into Finland's – which is fine and dandy by the pragmatic Finns.

Finlandisation bites Putin's pussycats

During the Second World War Finland committed the cardinal error of making an alliance with Hitler to fight Soviet Russia. It was what the English call “Hobson's choice”. There wasn't one. Germany lost the war but saved Finland. The Red Army never occupied Finland, being preoccupied with the race for Berlin before the Yanks got there.

Faint signals spell return of the tsar

Weak signals usually go unnoticed by the great public and by most experts. But they indicate events somewhere below the surface and can be harbingers of big changes. Take the recent announcement (24 August) by the chief Russian prosecutor that he planned to reopen the case of the murder of Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia, and his entire family on 17 July 1918.

Study the kiss, see if you can tell

Nikita Khrushchev once claimed to have seen Konrad Adenauer naked. “From behind,” he said, “it's obvious Germany will be divided forever. And having looked at him from the front I can also assure you Germany will never rise again”.