These ringed seals, these are the fatsicles of the Arctic.

As a diplomatic practitioner, Putin has learned history's lessons and is determined not to see his country ringed by enmity.

The town of some 19,000 people consists of wooden houses ringed by bamboo fencing, corrugated iron roofs transformed by rust into varying tawny shades.

So it is perhaps a cruel twist of genetic fate that so many albinos dwell under a harsh tropical sun on these coral ringed islands.

In the Soviet era, the distances between Russia and its neighbors became unbridgeable chasms, with the USSR ringed either by hostile states or weak, servile ones.

In fact, the government inexplicably replaced regular army troops with border police in 2010 to patrol the mountain ringed plateau into which the PLA has now intruded.

It is all a long way from the stable in Bethlehem that we read about in the New Testament a location now ringed by Israel Defense Forces barbed wire.

Russian leaders typically dealt with their fear of isolation and encirclement by going out of their way to appear threatening. In the Soviet era, the distances between Russia and its neighbors became unbridgeable chasms, with the USSR ringed either by hostile states or weak, servile ones.

In fact, the government inexplicably replaced regular army troops with border police in 2010 to patrol the mountain ringed plateau into which the PLA has now intruded. Known as Depsang, the plateau lies astride an ancient silk route connecting Yarkand in Xinjiang to India s Ladakh region through the Karakoram Pass.

As a diplomatic practitioner, Putin has learned history's lessons and is determined not to see his country ringed by enmity. Instead of Russia's borders draining his country's economy, he envisions Russia as a transit point between east and west, and also as an engine of growth for countries in search of the heavy industrial equipment Russia makes.