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The article ''Getting Pummeled in War Is a 200-Year Russian Tradition'', indicates:

The article ''Getting Pummeled in War Is a 200-Year Russian Tradition'', indicates:

{{Cquote|Despite President Vladimir Putin’s bluster yesterday that “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” there’s no question the last twelve months have been  terrible for his nation. But frankly, Russia has had not just a disastrous year, but a couple of bad centuries.

{{Cquote|Despite President [[Essay: Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian|Vladimir Putin]]’s bluster yesterday that “it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” there’s no question the last twelve months have been  terrible for his nation. But frankly, Russia has had not just a disastrous year, but a couple of bad centuries.

Just over 200 years ago, [[Napoleon]] invaded Russia, eventually occupying and burning Moscow before the Russian army, aided by a brutal winter, was able to eject the French Grande Armee at a cost of more than half a million casualties on both sides. In the middle of the 19th century, Russia lost the [[Crimean War]] against the combined forces of the UK, France and the Ottoman Empire, crippling the Imperial Russian Army (500,000 casualties in a two-year war), losing the Crimean Peninsula, and forfeiting the right to base warships in the Black Sea.  

Just over 200 years ago, [[Napoleon]] invaded Russia, eventually occupying and burning Moscow before the Russian army, aided by a brutal winter, was able to eject the French Grande Armee at a cost of more than half a million casualties on both sides. In the middle of the 19th century, Russia lost the [[Crimean War]] against the combined forces of the UK, France and the Ottoman Empire, crippling the Imperial Russian Army (500,000 casualties in a two-year war), losing the Crimean Peninsula, and forfeiting the right to base warships in the Black Sea.