India, Dec. 6 -- New Delhi and Moscow have shared a warm relationship since the 1970s, when Indira Gandhi and Leonid Brezhnev signed a bilateral treaty with strategic dimensions. The relationship received a fresh ballast after Trump 2.0 weaponised trade. Vladimir Putin's Russia, however, is different from the USSR and relates more to the Tsarist era. Orlando Figes's The Story of Russia is a good introduction to this civilisational nation. Figes, a British historian, has been a master storyteller of modern Russia as his works, such as Natasha's Dance and A People's Tragedy, reveal. The Story of Russia provides a panoramic view of the country's history, from the founding myths associated with Grand Prince Vladimir from the 10th century to the Putin years. It marks the continuities and ruptures in Russian history, the importance of Orthodox Christianity to the idea of Russia, and its existence as a State on the edge of Europe, but one that refuses to be assimilated into Europe....