Free Republic

Eight people were detained by police in Lund on Friday during demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the death in 1718 of King Karl XII. Two people were formally arrested for violent resistance. One of those arrested is also suspected of attempted assault. Six others were detained. A few dozen people were involved in the march, according to police. Demonstrators from the '30th November Association' gathered outside Lund Cathedral at lunchtime on Friday. The association is made up of nationalist groups from the university town and was founded following the First World War. Counter-demonstrators met in the Lundagård park. A...

September 20, 2004, 8:14 a.m. No Peter the Great Vladimir Putin is in the Andropov mold. By Ion Mihai Pacepa Vladimir Putin looks more and more like a heavy-handed imitation of Yuri Andropov — does anyone still remember him? Andropov was that other KGB chairman who rose all the way up to the Kremlin throne, and who was also once my de facto boss. Considering that Putin has inherited upwards of 6,000 suspected strategic nuclear weapons, this is frightening news. Former KGB officers are now running Russia's government, just as they did during Andropov's reign, and the Kremlin's image —...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, March 23 (UPI) -- Russian Tsar Peter the Great enjoyed warm ties with America more than 300 years ago, the St. Petersburg Times reported Tuesday. Peter, one of Russia's greatest rulers, built the city of St. Petersburg and met his first American, William Penn, the famous founder of the state of Pennsylvania, in 1698, Varoli, a U.S. citizen living in Russia's second largest city said, according to the St. Petersburg Times report. "The two discussed Quaker ideas", among them "the notion of religious tolerance," the paper said. "The two were to meet again and corresponded over several...

Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, is hosting 10 days of events to mark its 300th anniversary. The celebration peaks this weekend, with the arrival of 45 foreign leaders and an estimated 15,000 official guests. Commemorative flags billow from nearly every major building. Tall ships ply the ink-colored river Neva, and music sounds from flower-laden parks and squares. Residents and tourists alike are celebrating the official date of the city's founding in 1703 by Czar Peter the Great, who hailed St. Petersburg as a Window on Europe. An estimated two million foreigners are expected to visit the city and its cultural...