- Franklin County — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Franklin County is situated in south-central Washington state. The Columbia River forms its western border and the Snake River forms the southern and eastern borders. The shrub-steppe terrain is composed mainly of bunchgrass and sagebrush. There is little rainfall, but the soil is fertile and can grow anything with adequate moisture…
- Nikolai Patrushev (Wikipedia)
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (Russian: Никола́й Плато́нович Па́трушев; born 11 July 1951) is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia from 2008 to 2024. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia’s national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022.