Back when the Czech Republic went forward and signed agreements with the United States for the installation of anti-ballistic missile shield sites, the Russians were justifiably furious that their protests, concerns, and counter-proposals were summarily ignored. Seething, the Kremlin promised a “concrete” military response, but it was unclear exactly what that would be. Then, a few weeks later Izvestia runs a curious report citing anonymous sources that the government was thinking of deploying nuclear bombers to bases on Cuba, causing a panicky debate among the Trans-Atlantic security camp. The Kremlin later denied this report with particularly strong language (angrily calling it a media hoax), and today Alex Rodriguez of the Chicago Tribune has an interesting dispatch which speculates that “The stories may simply be an awkward attempt at sending shock waves through Washington by using claims that would evoke memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which brought Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war.” Over here on the blog we barely paid attention to the news as it seemed like a clear manipulation of public opinion and ridiculous fear mongering. However, the astonishingly daft Murdoch-owned media really helped out whoever planned the hoax by blowing up the issue; or as my friend would say, they really made a meal out of it. Somehow I doubt they gave the same sensationalistic coverage to the denial of the report.
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2 Comments
Hmmm, that’s interesting. The Kremlin also denies that there was any impropriety in Russia’s conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovovsky — and I don’t think it’s at all unlikely they view Robert Amsterdam as being “astonishingly daft” for suggesting the contrary.Why, then, do you accept their denial in regard to Cuba at face value? Russia has been buzzing Americans with nuclear bombers for months now, sending weapons to Iran to allow that rogue state to defend a nuclear arsenal if it seeks to make one, and providing piles of weapons to Hugo Chavez, whom your own post above this one accuses of being the new Castro.Your comments make little sense and are imbued with exactly the same type of hubris you seem to revile in Murdoch. Tsk, tsk.
Oh boy, more attacks, more of the usual.What I am arguing is that the Kremlin is trying to have it both ways here. Izvestia never publishes anything that the government doesn’t tell it to, so some defense hawks succeed in leaking this story, which is enough to scare some feeble minds into thinking they could actually be considering putting their dilapidated nearly obsolete Tupelovs on Cuba, while at the same time allowing them to deny the report, and keep relations somewhat friendly with U.S. military brass.However for this strategy to work, they are counting on people to buy the bait and panic over this “rumor from unnamed sources” – more bang for their buck to scare people without having any real, military power at stake. In other words, you are behaving exactly how they want to you to behave, complicit in their PR strategy to look big and tough in response to the Czech missile deal.