Sweden’s Submarine Whodunit Brings Cold War Back to Baltic Sea

[Purveyor]

By Amanda Billner and James G. Neuger Oct 21, 2014 7:43 AM ET

Is it a submarine? Is it Russian? And what’s 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 Putin’s Russia is making more regional trouble.

That is, if the vessel is one of his.

The facts are these: Late last week, Sweden’s navy was tipped off about an underwater intruder near the islands around Stockholm. It’s 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]

1. One ping. One ping only.

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. "Crazy Ivan!"

http://goo.gl/eHzek

<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]

2. Quick! Quick! Everyone re-read The Bedford Incident.

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]

4. A military spokesman said the wrong information had been released, so as not to aid a foreign power

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]

5. Isn't this a rerun?

Henning Mankell used it years ago as a plot device in a novel.

[bemildred]

6. I was thinking too much Tom Clancy. nt

[Ash_F]

7. It could easily be the US

USGov fucks with our allies regularly.