Sweden’s Submarine Whodunit Brings Cold War Back to Baltic Sea
By Amanda Billner and James G. Neuger Oct 21, 2014 7:43 AM ET
Is it a submarine? Is it Russian? And whats it doing off the coast of Sweden?
The swirling nautical whodunit in the Baltic Sea brought back memories of Cold War fact and fiction, fueling the hypothesis among jittery neighbors that President Vladimir Putins Russia is making more regional trouble.
That is, if the vessel is one of his.
The facts are these: Late last week, Swedens navy was tipped off about an underwater intruder near the islands around Stockholm. Its still searching for the unwelcome foreign vessel. Russia pleads not guilty. The rest is mystery.
What other country could it be? said James Rogers, a lecturer in European security at the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. Russia wishes to assert itself and intimidate countries around it. It wants to achieve recognition that it is a great power in the 19th-century sense. It wants to flex its muscles to make the Western powers listen.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-21/the-rest-is-mystery-as-swedes-chase-possible-russian-sub.html
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,681 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,013 posts)<iframe width="300" height="50" frameBorder="0" src="http://www.moviesoundclips.net/embed.php?id=76b83ede09386e677cad04a5dc592754" style="overflow-y: hidden;border:0px;" scrolling="no" seamless="seamless"></iframe>
malthaussen
(17,191 posts)It would actually be humorous -- if it weren't so depressing -- at how obvious the propaganda machine is at stirring up fear over shit that has been going on for decades. Flyovers, sub-tag, spying... it is like they think we live in the kind of dream world where Henry Stimson could say "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." Maybe some do, in which case a wake-up call might not be such a bad idea.
-- Mal
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)A Swedish military spokesman said the wrong information had been released about the grainy photo, which shows a dark object at sea, surrounded by foam, "so as not to aid a foreign power".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29706661
pscot
(21,024 posts)Henning Mankell used it years ago as a plot device in a novel.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)USGov fucks with our allies regularly.