It was bad enough that on the eve of President Obama’s visit the Feds resurrected the whole “Russian-spy stereotype” by arresting Sergey Aleynikov for stealing code from Goldman Sachs. Now the Times’ Alan Feuer has made a dig at our friends in the former USSR in a little piece about the arrest of a group of Ecstasy dealers.
The Russians were in custody. Operation Odessa had gone off without a hitch. Five young men had been picked up in coordinated dawn raids in a two-mile swath of southern Brooklyn. The federal agents had surprised them in their beds. Now they were here, in a government lockup on the sixth floor of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office on the West Side of Manhattan. It was 8 a.m., and the men were looking sleep-deprived; some of them were still dressed in their disco clothes.
Really? Really, Alan? So if a Russian wears something glittery and form-fitting it’s a “disco” outfit? What if an American wore a jewel-studded tracksuit, then what would you call it? “Clubwear”? Yeah, that’s what we thought. Well. Thanks a lot. So much for diplomacy.
Where Cat Greets Mouse, and Vice Versa [NYT]
Obama Resets Ties to Russia, but Work Remains [NYT]
