Vladimir Putin is keen to see a Russian lead the International Telecommunication Union
|BERLIN AND SAN FRANCISCO|10 min read
Despite its name, the Palace of Parliament in the centre of Bucharest, Romania’s capital, is no monument to democracy. It was conceived in the 1980s by Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s late communist dictator, and built to match the size of his ego. It boasts 365,000 square metres of floor space, much of which stands unused and unheated (Buckingham Palace, in comparison, is downright cosy, spreading across only 77,000).