Now it looks like the Russian government is coming clean and saying their two jets were likely downed by terrorism.
What is it about bureaucracies that makes them reflexively lie in a crisis, no matter how incredible the lie, and no matter that they stand to gain nothing from it?
What lie? I remember some early reports indicating no sign of terrorism. Then they find a sign at one site. No surprise there.
OK, to be fair, they didn’t actually come out and overtly lie. They didn’t say, “This was not the work of terrorists, we have proof it was only an accident.”
But they were clearly trying to play down the terrorist possibility. Oh, it *might possibly *be terrorism, but it’s just as likely it’s weather, or pilot error, or bad fuel, or just some freaky coincidence. They were attempting, however stupidly, to deceive, I guess in an effort to save the security services embarassment.
FWIW, the Russian state-run TV rolled with the official party line, while the independent newspapers didn’t.
I think you have to remember that Russia is a relatively fledgling govt. and probably always on guard for someone to try to overthrow it. They are always checking their back to make sure thay keep control. If they were covering, it was probably because they didn’t think a failure of their security would sit well with the population or with whoever is trying to seize power. They’re not dealing with the same domestic political dynamic we have here.