And Don't Forget To Pay for Your Siberian Vacation!

For those out there who still think that Russia is a somehow less than perfectly honest and well-meaning former imperial overlord, note that the long-festering dispute over the legendary Sárospatak Calvinist College library appears to be over. After being seized by the Soviets after World War II and then held for five decades, the Russians have finally agreed to give the great historical treasure back, just to demonstrate their interest in having the best possible ties with Hungary. Well, that and $400,000.

Seriously - the Nizhny Novgorod Lenin Library, which had ended up with the book booty after the war - is "charging" Hungary the equivalent of Ft 85 million for "storing" the books. That, at least is the public story. The real story is probably that the neo-Leninists in the Kremlin are having the librarians stick us with the mother of all late-return fees just to mess with our heads and remind us who is daddy in these parts. Either that, or they needed to raise some quick cash for the Hungarian-Russian Friendship Society, which after this gratuitous little insult will probably need it.