Here are shots of Foreign Minister Phil Goff at a wreath-laying ceremony in Moscow at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Monday (Moscow time). The ceremony was to commemorate New Zealanders and Russians who took part in and died in the Northern Convoys in World War II.

The message on the wreath, written in Russian and English says "In memory of the sons and daughters of Russia lost in the Northern Convoys and in other great battles of World War II".

It then quotes a Russian veteran's comments to writer and poet Denis Glover, himself a veteran of the convoys....

"Twenty million lives are certainly a high price to pay for victory, but ask any mother in New Zealand, England and Russia, is it too much, or too little, to lose even one son?."

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>