VLADIMIR PUTIN SAYS HE IS A RELIGIOUS MAN, A GREAT supporter of the Russian Orthodox Church. If so, he may well go to bed each night, say his prayers and ask God: ‘Why didn’t you put some mountains in Ukraine?’
If God had built mountains in Ukraine, then the great expanse of flatland that is the North European Plain would not be such encouraging territory from which to attack Russia repeatedly. As it is, Putin has no choice: he must at least attempt to control the flatlands to the west. So it is with all nations, big or small. The landscape imprisons their leaders, giving them fewer choices and less room to manoeuvre than you might think. This was true of the Athenian Empire, the Persians, the Babylonians and before; it was true of every leader seeking high ground from which to protect their tribe.


- Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall

The land on which we live has always shaped us

More arguments take place in your mind than in reality. [link]

‏لا تتماسك ..
‏إرْتَبِك أمام الجمال ، هذا موقفٌ أصيل .
‏- علي عكور -

"Sunday Painting No. 2" by Stephen Mackey

"Forecourt of The Umayyad Mosque, Damascus" by Gustav Bauernfeind

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*من البوت*

the Grand Principality of Muscovy, through Peter the Great, Stalin and now Putin, each Russian leader has been confronted by the same problems. It doesn’t matter if the ideology of those in control is tsarist, Communist or crony capitalist – Russian ports still freeze, and the North European Plain is still flat.
Strip out the lines of nation states, and the map Ivan the Terrible confronted centuries ago, is the same one Vladimir Putin is faced with to this day.

- Prisoners of geography

منذ أيام إمارة موسكو، وخلال حكم القيصر بيتر العظيم، ستالين، والآن بوتين... جميع القادة الروس ما زالوا يواجهون نفس المشاكل بغض النظر عن أيديولوجياتهم سواء كانت قيصرية، شيوعية، او رأسمالية.
الموانئ الروسية لا زالت تتجمد (خلال أشهر الشتاء الطويلة)، السهل الأوروبي الشمالي ما زال مسطحاً.

إمسح الخطوط الحدودية للدول وسترى أنَّ نفس الخريطة التي أضطر القيصر آيفان الرهيب لمواجهتها قبل قرون، هي التي يواجهها فلاديمير بوتين الآن