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.