May 5,2008:
Russian media is regressing to Cold War fantasies. There
are two current examples. First is a story given big play in Russia, where a
Russian diplomat insisted that the MiG-29 recorded (on a UAV video) shooting
down a Georgian UAV, was not Russian (from a nearby air base), but one of the
MiG-29s still used by some NATO countries. This NATO MiG-29, the ambassador,
insisted, must have been secretly moved to Georgia, or maybe nearby Turkey, and
used in the attack. In other words, the ambassador was trying to make a case
for Russia not being responsible.
The second
example is even more bizarre. A recent Russian TV documentary asserted that the
unrest in Chechnya over the last fifteen years was a plot by Turkey and the
United States to make money. Media stories like this were common during the
Cold War, and few people, least of all their KGB creators, took them seriously.
The Cold War may not have returned, but some of the comic relief of the period
is oozing back into our lives.