Last week, La Russophobe reported on the fact that, as the LA Times reported on Sunday, "Russian national Oleg Khintsagov was arrested Feb. 1, 2006, after he smuggled about 3.5 ounces of weapons-grade uranium into Georgia from his homeland, expecting to receive $1 million for it, Shota Utiashvili, chief of the analytical department of the Georgian Interior Ministry, said Friday in a telephone interview from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Khintsagov, who thought he was dealing with "an extremely wealthy customer" wanting to buy nuclear bomb-making material, claimed that he would be able to provide up to 6.6 pounds at the price of $1 million for each 3.5 ounces, Utiashvili said." The Times stated: "Utiashvili charged that Russia had not cooperated in the investigation of the incident, which was first made public this week by Georgian and U.S. officials. These officials said the CIA, the FBI and the Energy Department had assisted in the case. Utiashvili said Georgia had requested help from the FSB, or Russian Federal Security Service, immediately after the arrests were made, but that the agency never responded. 'We think it is extremely dangerous that such material can get into the hands of terrorists,' Utiashvili said. 'We think it is in everybody's interests, and especially in the interests of Russia, to get to the bottom of it and assist us in this investigation.'"

Not only has Russia "failed to cooperate," but according to the Times Russia has characterized concern over the issue as an "overblown propaganda ploy," a conspiracy of Russia's foreign enemies. The Times reported: "'It appears obvious that Georgian 'hawks' were consciously trying to deal a painful blow to the prestige of Russia in the international arena,' the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper declared in an unsigned commentary. Georgia's actions in the case were "a planned information provocation," said Andrei Cherkasenko, board chairman of Atompromresursy, a manufacturer of nuclear power industry equipment, according to RIA Novosti, the state-run Russian news agency."

Now where have we heard this &#^!@% before? LR is getting oh so very tired of listening to Russians talk about their foreign enemies each and every time Russia's hand is caught in the cookie jar. First hardened Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko is poisoned with Russian polonium, and Russia says he was killed just to make the Kremlin look bad, and now Russian nukes are passing into Georgia and the story is the same. Over and over again, we're being told that we're the ones who have the problem, not Russia -- yet, when an issue like the NATO action against Serbia comes up, Russia explodes in frenzy against the West which it claims is fully justified.

Welcome to the neo-Soviet Union.