Vancouver Sun: The plague of pirates preying on Asia’s sea links to Europe and the prospects of opportunities presented by global warming have prompted Russia to dust off some old plans that have been lying in filing cabinets since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The shortest route by some 3,000 nautical miles between the throbbing workshops of the Far East and Southeast Asia and the hypermarkets of Europe is not the current course through the traffic jams of the Malacca Straits and the high-risk …