Every so often you run across a news story that drops your jaw and robs your breath. This is one of those stories.
"A day after a drone strike on Moscow," reports The NY Times, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russia "would have preferred to hear at least some words of condemnation" from the West.
Juxtaposed to the Times story, "Russia Denounces West Over Drone Strike on Moscow," is a piece titled "Russian Missile Strike on Kyiv Kills 3." A child was among them.
Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow are exceedingly rare, sporadic events. Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine are daily events. No Russians have been killed in Ukrainian strikes. U.N. officials report that "thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including children, have been killed in Russian airstrikes and artillery bombardments."
Peskov added that "We will calmly and deliberately think how to deal with this."
Former president Dmitri Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’s national security council, was, however, less than calm and thoughtful. He wrote on Twitter that "The goofy officials of the UK, our eternal enemy," are acting "as Ukraine’s ally ... leading an undeclared war against Russia. That being the case, any of its public officials (either military, or civil, who facilitate the war) can be considered as a legitimate military target."
The Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said America's refusal to condemn the attack was "an encouragement for Ukrainian terrorists."
Immediately after the Moscow drone strike, Vladimir Putin said it was "clearly a sign of terrorist activity." More ominously, he accused unnamed forces of wanting to use "a type of a dirty bomb related to the nuclear industry."
This sort of falderal is usually RussianSpeak about its own intentions. And with that, I'll close.