Christophe Ena / AP

Napoleon's secret coded letter, shown here in this photo taken Nov. 28, declares his intentions "to blow up the Kremlin" during his ill-fated Russian campaign in 1812.

FONTAINEBLEAU, France -- The single line of Napoleon's secret code told Paris of his desperate, last order against the Russians: "At three o'clock in the morning, on the 22nd I am going to blow up the Kremlin."

By the time Paris received the letter three days later, the Russian czar's seat of power was in flames and the diminished French army was in retreat. Its elegantly calligraphic ciphers show history's famed general at one of his weakest moments.

"My cavalry is in tatters, many horses are dying," dictated Napoleon, the once-feared leader showing the strain of his calamitous Russian invasion, which halved his army.

The rare document -- dated Oct. 20, 1812, signed "Nap" in the emperor's hand and written in numeric code -- is up for auction Sunday at France's Fontainebleau Auction House.

The Napoleon code, used only for top-secret letters when the French emperor was far from home, aimed to stop enemies from intercepting French army orders. The code was regularly changed to prevent it from being cracked.

A 'different Napoleon'
Napoleon must have dispatched his strongest horses and riders to carry the news: It only took three days to reach France's interior ministry -- 1,540 miles across Europe.

"This letter is unique. Not only is it all in code, but it's the first time we see this different Napoleon. He went into Moscow in 1812 at the height of his power. He returned profoundly weakened. In Moscow, the Russians had fled days before and burnt down the city. There was no victory for Napoleon, nor were there any provisions for his starving, dying army," says Jean-Christophe Chataignier of the auction house.

The only thing left for the weakened leader was to give the order to burn Russia's government buildings -- coded in the letter as "449, 514, 451, 1365..."

'Incredible insight'
It is evidence of what historians call the beginning of the end of Napoleon's glorious empire, which started in Russia and ended at Waterloo three years later.

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In June 1812, Napoleon's "Grand Army" -- at 600,000 men one of the largest in human history -- confidently entered Russia. But they were woefully unprepared for the harsh weather, the strong Russian defense and the Russian scorched-earth tactics, which left nothing behind to sustain the hungry and freezing French troops.

"This letter is an incredible insight, we never see Napoleon emotively speaking in this way before," says Chataignier. "Only in letters to (his wife) Josephine did he ever express anything near to emotion. Moscow knocked him."

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In the text -- which announces that his commanders are evacuating Moscow -- Napoleon laments his army's plight, asking for assistance to replenish his forces and the ravaged cavalry, which saw thousands of horses die.

In September, 200 years after Russia's victory over Napoleon, the Kremlin held huge celebrations aimed at rousing patriotism among modern Russians. The highlight was a re-enactment of the battle of Borodino -- one of the most damaging clashes for Napoleon's troops -- which saw thousands in Russian and French military uniforms perform before several hundred thousand spectators.

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The 1812 victory played an important role in Russia's emergence as a major world power. Until World War I, Napoleon's Russian campaign and the ensuing wars were the largest European military face-off in history.

The letter, which is accompanied by a second decoded sheet, is estimated to fetch up to $19,500.

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Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich of punk band Pussy Riot sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on August 17.

MOSCOW -- A Russian court ruled Thursday that video footage of the Pussy Riot punk group protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church was "extremist" and should be removed from websites.

The demonstration last February offended many Russian Orthodox Christians. But Putin has been criticized by U.S. and European leaders over what they saw as disproportionate jail sentences imposed on three Pussy Riot members.

Their trial was also seen by Putin's critics as part of a clampdown on dissent.

'Mass disorder'
The Moscow court said it had based its ruling on conclusions by a panel of experts who studied the video, showing band members in colorful mini-skirts and ski masks dancing in front of the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Judge Marina Musimovich said the footage "has elements of extremism; in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion." She said it also had calls for mutiny and "mass disorder."

The verdict said that free distribution of the video could ignite racial and religious hatred.

The court's ruling applies to other videos released by the band, including a performance in Moscow's Red Square, where calls for mass disorder could be heard. Such calls were not made inside the church.

The websites are now likely to be included in a state register and could be blocked if the banned content is not removed.

The Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor said that once the court decision takes effect it will monitor how it is implemented.

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Three members of Pussy Riot convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their "punk prayer," which the Russian Orthodox Church has cast as part of a concerted attack on the church and the faithful.

The women said the protest, in which they burst into Christ the Savior Cathedral and called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, was not motivated by hatred and was meant to mock the church leadership's support for the longtime leader.

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Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are serving two-year jail sentences over the protest last February. A third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, walked free last month when her sentence was suspended on appeal.

"To me this is a clear attribute of censorship -- censorship of art and censorship of culture, of the protest culture which is very important for any country, let alone for Russia," Samutsevich told reporters outside court.

"Now of course the fact that they will be blocking all Pussy Riot videos as I understand, all photos -- this is horrible. Naturally, I will lodge an appeal and I will try to do it today," she added.

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Putin, a former KGB officer who has cultivated close ties with the Orthodox church over 13 years in power, has rebuffed Western criticism about the prison terms meted out.

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MOSCOW -- Jailed Pussy Riot punk protester Maria Alyokhina has been moved to a single-person cell at her own request because of tensions with follow prisoners, Russia's federal penitentiary service said Friday.

Alyokhina, 24, is serving a two-year sentence for a raucous protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral. Activists said her trial, and that of two band mates, was part of a crackdown on dissent.

"Some tensions arose in relationships and, apparently to prevent this situation from escalating, she decided to submit a request to the prison leadership and they moved her to a one-person cell," a prison service spokeswoman told Reuters.

The spokeswoman dismissed Russian media reports Alyokhina argued with inmates over religion at the Ural Mountains prison about 715 miles northeast of Moscow. Pussy Riot's protest offended many members of Russia's Orthodox Church.

The spokeswoman also said she had no information regarding a report on the tabloid-style Life News website that Alyokhina had received violent threats from cell mates, according to Reuters.

Alyokhina's main meal is taken to her cell and she is accompanied by a guard when she leaves it, the spokeswoman said.

Pussy Riot members sent to far-flung prisons, lawyer says

'Punk prayer'
Alyokhina and two band mates were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their "punk prayer," which the dominant Russian Orthodox Church has cast as part of a concerted attack on the church and the faithful.

The women said the protest, in which they burst into Christ the Saviour Cathedral and called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin, was not motivated by hatred and was meant to mock the church leadership's support for the longtime leader.

Russia's Pussy Riot: Unmasked and on trial

Putin, a former KGB officer who has cultivated close ties with the church over 13 years in power, has rejected criticism from the United States and European leaders who called the two-year sentences disproportionate.

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Alyokhina, who has a young son, argued with the judge and cross-examined witnesses during her trial.

Her band mate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, is serving her sentence in a different prison. Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was freed last month when a court suspended her sentence on appeal.

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Misha Japaridze / AP

The tombstone of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky at a cemetery in Moscow. U.S. lawmakers are expected to vote in a human rights legislation named after Magnitsky that would impose sanctions on Russian officials involved in human rights violations.

MOSCOW -- Russia increased pressure on U.S. Congress on Friday not to pass legislation that would punish Russian officials for human rights violations, warning Washington that it had prepared tough retaliatory measures.

Congress was due to vote on a bill named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky later Friday, the third anniversary of his death in detention. The bill is designed to deny visas for officials involved in his imprisonment, abuse or death.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia had already prepared its response but gave no details other than a Foreign Ministry statement on Thursday warning of tough retaliation against "unfriendly and provocative" legislation.

"Of course there are (measures in place). We have discussed (them) at all stages of the debate over the so-called Magnitsky bill," Interfax news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying. "I can confirm that our response will be tough."

Possible sanctions against US officials
He gave no details but Russian officials have indicated that Moscow would retaliate by imposing sanctions on U.S. officials it accused of violating Russian citizens' rights.

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They would be likely to include officials involved in refusing a Russian request for the extradition of a convicted arms trader, Viktor Bout, serving a 25-year prison term in the United States.

The rhetoric became more heated this week as the vote neared. Adoption of the bill -- and any reprisal -- could damage efforts to improve relations between the former Cold War enemies at the start of President Barack Obama's new term, and a few months after Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.

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During his first term in office, Obama initiated a "reset" in relations after bilateral ties sank to a low after a 2008 war between Russia and pro-Western Georgia. But recent months have seen both successes and strains in U.S.-Russian relations.

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The House of Representatives voted Thursday to include the legislation in a broader package to extend "permanent normal trade relations," or PNTR, to Russia following its entry to the World Trade Organization in August.

'Horrendous and unacceptable'
Magnitsky was jailed in 2008 on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud, charges which colleagues say were fabricated by police investigators he had accused of stealing $230 million from the state through fraudulent tax refunds.

The Magnitsky case has become a symbol of corruption and the abuse of citizens who challenge the authorities in Russia, where the Kremlin's own human rights council has said he was probably beaten to death.

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Rep. David Dreier, the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee, said on Thursday that such action in a country "that claims to be a democracy ... is horrendous and it is unacceptable."

Congress must approve PNTR to ensure that American companies receive all the market-opening benefits of Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization in August.

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U.S. business backs the combined trade and human rights bill out of a belief that the benefits from approval of PNTR will outweigh negative fallout from the Magnitsky portion of the legislation.

Russia's entry into the WTO after 18 years of negotiations and strong support from Obama obliges the United States to lift a Soviet-era amendment that linked favorable U.S. tariffs on Russian goods to the rights of Soviet Jews.

The amendment is outdated, but U.S. lawmakers are reluctant to remove it without passing legislation to keep pressure on Moscow over their human rights concerns, which have deepened since Putin returned to the presidency in May.

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If the House approves the bill, it will then go the Senate, where supporters are optimistic it will be approved. Obama is expected to sign the bill, even though the White House preferred legislation without the human rights sanctions provisions.

The two countries negotiated a simplified visa process earlier this year. But Moscow's closure of a U.S. international aid agency office and accusations that Washington was meddling in Russian politics undermined prospects for better relations.

View striking images from Russia on NBC's PhotoBlog

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MOSCOW -- A vessel with a nine-person crew and 700 tons of gold ore onboard went missing in stormy seas off Russia's Pacific Coast.

The ship sent a distress call on Sunday as it was sailing from the coastal town of Neran to Feklistov Island in the Sea of Okhotsk, The Associated Press reported.

The vessel, hired by mining company Polymetal, was carrying 700 tons of gold ore from one deposit to another where it was to be processed. Gold ore is the material from which gold is extracted and contains only a small percentage of the precious metal.

Polymetal's spokesman on Monday would not estimate the value of the cargo.

The company said it has shipped ore via that route before, and there was nothing unusual in shipping it by the sea, AP said.

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Sergey Ponomarev / AP

Freed feminist punk group Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, center, speaks outside a court in Moscow Wednesday.

MOSCOW -- Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich said Wednesday the punk band would continue its political protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We are not finished, nor are we going to end our political protest," she said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "The situation in the country has deteriorated since our performance and the trial itself is a testimony to that."

A Russian appeals court on Wednesday upheld the two-year jail sentences handed down to two members of punk band Pussy Riot for a protest against Vladimir Putin in a cathedral, but freed a third member by suspending her sentence.

A Moscow City Court judge said the court was leaving the sentences in place for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, and issuing a suspended sentence for Samutsevich, 30.

Samutsevich told CNN that Pussy Riot still exists, but added that the band will be more "cautious" in the future when staging anti-Putin events.

"We have to act in such a way that [the Russian authorities] do not learn about concerts ahead of time ... and arrest us," she said.

The three women were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for belting out a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

"Of course I am very happy to be out and to be free," Samutsevich told CNN, "but I'm very upset that Nadezhda and Maria are still incarcerated."

Russian Orthodox Church to Pussy Riot punk band: Repent before appeal

The case sparked an international outcry, with Western governments and pop star Madonna condemning the sentences as disproportionate, a view not widely shared in Russia where public opinion was shocked by the protest.

Members of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot" (from left) Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass-walled cage in the Moscow court Wednesday.

The three band members said their performance was a political protest and that they have no animus toward Russian Orthodox faithful.

Before the ruling Wednesday, relatives and lawyers for the trio complained of political interference in the original trial and said that Putin's weekend comments on the case in an interview marking his 60th birthday had compromised the appeal. 

Samutsevich told CNN the cathedral protest was intended as a criticism of the support given by the Russian Orthodox Church for Putin's re-election, and not as an expression of hatred aimed at believers.

"We believe that we live in a secular society and in this state, the principles of the secular society should be respected," she said. "The representatives of the church should not interfere with the politics of the country, and we wanted to highlight this problem through our action."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Misha Japaridze / AP

A Greenpeace activist, dressed as a polar bear, sits inside a police car after being detained outside Gazprom's headquarters in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 5, 2012. Russian and international environmentalists are protesting against Gazprom's plans to pioneer oil drilling in the Arctic.

Misha Japaridze / AP

The Associated Press reports — Put your paws in the air.

Moscow police have arrested 10 environmental activists, including four dressed in polar bear costumes, who were protesting outside the main office of Gazprom, the Russian oil and natural gas giant.

The protest Wednesday by members of Greenpeace called upon Gazprom to halt its offshore drilling in the Arctic. The protesters blocked a driveway into the Gazprom headquarters, laying down fake snow, which those dressed as bears rolled in. Continue reading.

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Sergey Ponomarev / AP file

Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012.

Russian Orthodox Church clerics have asked the country’s authorities to "show mercy" on the three members of the punk band Pussy Riot, who were sentenced to two years in jail each on Friday in a trial seen as a test of President Vladimir Putin's tolerance of dissent.

­"Casting no doubt on the legitimacy of the court’s decision, we appeal to the public authorities to show mercy, within the law, on the convicted in the hope they will never repeat such blasphemous actions,” the Russian Orthodox Church's High Council said in a statement, according to RT.com.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

A judge sentenced the three women for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, after they staged an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox church. 

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers, but the judge rejected those arguments.

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"We think the words of pity for the convicted which have been coming from the Church's children and other people are natural. It is necessary to divide the sin from sinner and reprimand the first while hoping the latter will improve," read the first official statement from the Orthodox Church since the trial began, according to RT.com.

Small, but raucous protests were held Friday in a few dozen cities in support of the three women.

According to The Associated Press, Archpriest Maxim Kozlov said on state TV: "We are simply praying and hoping that these young women and all these people shouting in front of the court building, committing sacrilegious acts not only in Russia but in other countries, realize that their acts are awful. And despite this the church is asking for mercy within the limits of law."

Patriarch Kirill, the current head of the church, is a strong supporter of Putin, and has described the women's performance as part of an assault by "enemy forces" on the church.

Aware that a long sentence could reinforce the picture Pussy Riot has painted of him as intolerant and repressive, Putin told reporters this month that although the women had done "nothing good," they should not be judged too harshly.

The church's forgiveness is unlikely to change the women's sentence.

Also joining a chorus against the women's sentence was Madonna, who had already voiced her support for the punk band.

"I protest the conviction and sentencing of Pussy Riot to a penal colony for two years for a 40-second performance extolling their political opinions,'' Madonna said in a statement. She called the sentence "too harsh and in fact is inhumane. They've spent enough time in jail. I call on all of Russia to let Pussy Riot go free."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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