Putin’s Russia is continuing to breath life into old Cold War figures. In the space of a few weeks Russian submarines have planted flags under the north pole, claiming the territory as their own; soviet bombers have resumed Cold War face-offs with their old adversaries; the leader’s image has become an aggressive propaganda device; and the BBC news has been silenced.

Russia has staked an ownership claim on much of the North Pole - seizing the opportunity presented by global warming to access the mineral reserves that were inaccessible beneath the Arctic ice. Sergei Balyasnikov, of the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Institute, told the news agency, Ria-Novosti, that the mission was ‘risky and heroic’ and was ‘like putting a flag on the moon’ [Ria-Novosti via the BBC].

The propaganda effect of the mission was rather undermined when a Finnish teenager spotted that footage from the film, Titanic, was used by a Russian state TV station, Rossiya, to illustrate the Russian submarines under the North Pole [from The Guardian].

It looks like the approach to British airspace by Soviet bombers in June was an early example of the Soviet-style bomber patrols Russia has restarted [from the BBC].

Russian generals claimed that bombers approaching the American military base in Guam ‘exchanged smiles’ with American pilots [The Guardian]. The re-activation of flights by Russia’s ageing nuclear bomber forces has increased concerns that nuclear accidents are made far more likely as a result of the exercises.

Putin’s personal propaganda machine has moved up a few gears in recent weeks too. Photos of Putin on a fishing trip with Prince Albert II of Monaco have been circulating amongst the world’s media:

Meanwhile, The Telegraph has reported that the Russian state has revived yet another old Soviet spectre, the forced psychiatric treatment of dissidents.

BBC Radio has been forced of FM bands in Russia this week.

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