Moscow is blaming Britain for the Kursk attack

Is the sinking of the super-yacht Bayesian and likely death of Mike Lynch a bigger story than Ukraine’s Kursk incursion? The Russian mid-market tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets certainly thinks so, reflecting a clear unwillingness on the part of the Kremlin and the state-controlled or state-dominated media to get to grips with the current crisis in Kursk.

Likewise, the stodgy government newspaper of record, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, recently stuck with a piece about plucky locals ready for whatever happens, under the headline, ‘A city with a special history and a spirit that cannot be broken. How Kursk lives today.’ Meanwhile, the stridently pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda ran the latest outburst from former president turned maximalist troll Dmitry Medvedev warning that ‘there will be no negotiations after the Ukrainian Armed Forces attack on Kursk Region.’

Only the broadsheet Izvestiya on Wednesday led with Kursk, but even then with an upbeat tale of a Russian helicopter gunship destroying Ukrainian armoured vehicles. Inside, the paper ran a large ‘analysis’ piece that in many ways mirrored the key Kremlin talking points, explicitly sourcing most of the piece to the SVR, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.