12 JULY 1997, page 15

The Bear At Bay

will cut Russia off from Europe instead of bringing it closer Washington DC WHEN historians, decades from now, consider the 20th century they will proba- bly be struck by how......

Mind Your Language

`FOR YEARS,' writes Mr Tony Rus- sell Wayman plaintively from Plac- erville, California, 'I had smugly and priggishly assumed my superiority over those authors, proof-readers......