use this story all the time to illustrate the superiority of Russian and Chinese

http://articles.philly.com/1986-01-15/news/26052630_1_hostage-crisis-soviet-captives-islamic-liberation-organizationI use this story all the time to illustrate the superiority of Russian and Chinese cultures in their understanding if both human nature and how to deal with “the middle people” of the arid zones who cause all the trouble in the world.

But even the Russians seem to have lost all aspirations to aristocracy.