"быстро! ...si vous plait"

Meat after all, yes. But this word souds familiar for all russian speakers. Even for those frome the first level: "Where did I heard this?"

Bistro as a concept was developed in Paris. Bistros are restaurants defined mostly by the foods they serve. The word "bistro" may come, , if we believe the urban legend, from the Russian быстро (bystro) which means quick. According to an urban legend, it entered the French language during the Russian occupation of Paris in 1815. Cossacks who wanted to be served quickly would shout "bistro!".

Is this true? Larousse Gastronomique, the world's ultimate culinary encyclopedia, states that the word bistro did not appear in the French language until 1884, nearly seventy years after the Russians had left. The most likely origin is doubtless an abbreviation of the word bistrouille, a French slang word for a mixture of coffee and cheap brandy once served at such places. So writes bistrosets.com, whose autority in this subject I can not discuss.

(Image: "At the Bistro," Jean Beraud)

Putin likes all women, not only Kabayeva

Russian President Vladimir Putin turned a reporter's question about his marriage into a discourse on female beauty, saying Friday that "I like all Russian women." Putin praised his countrywomen in response to a reporter's question about a recent tabloid report that claimed he intends to marry a former Olympic gymnast less than half his age.

"There is not a single word of truth" to the report, Putin said at a news conference in Sardinia with incoming Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

"Putin divorced", The Moscow tabloid, Moskovsky Korrespondent, reported.

Kabayeva, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Games, is now a member of the lower house of Russia's parliament from the pro-Kremlin party. The tabloid report, which was published April 12, has been largely ignored in the Russian press. But it's received wide play in many European newspapers.

"I have always had a negative opinion of those who, with their snotty noses and their erotic fantasies, meddle in other people's lives," he said.

The Independent: "Russian town is so toxic even the mayor wants it closed down "

The residents of many Russian towns might feel that they have cause for complaint. But in Chapayevsk, a town of about 70,000 inhabitants in European Russia, the mayor himself has suggested a novel way of solving the town's problems – abandon it. According to The Independent, you can hardly blame him – 96 per cent of all children there are deemed unhealthy.

Chapayevsk, close to the Volga river and the city of Samara, is home to factories that produced chemical weapons for many years, and is blighted by air and soil pollution. According to the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, at a round table meeting on the environment in Samara this week, the town's mayor, Nikolai Malakhov, said that resettling the town's residents would be an "ideal solution" to Chapayevsk's problems"

Bucharest, a battle of the legacies

For Putin and Bush, Bucharest was a battle of the legacies, and on points Putin won. For The Times, president Putin was the first winner from the Nato summit in Bucharest, "and he wasn't even there". So writes  Bronwen Maddox Is true that the summit has revealed a deep split on how to deal with it: between the US and Eastern European countries, who want to press the borders of Nato up to Russia without apology, and Germany (with some back-up from France), which wants to tread softly.
But anyway, reality is still hard for Russia. Soumaya Ghannoushi wonders in The Guardian if is any wonder Russia looks angrily westward. "As a Russian politician put it, "Russia can't just twiddle its thumbs when it sees the Americans taking root in the Baltic and Caucasus countries and strengthening their positions in East European countries. When Nato's steam engine is directed toward us, we simply must respond."