Some Russians Think Chelyabinsk Meteor Wasn't A Meteor

[JonB]

Some Russians Think Chelyabinsk Meteor Wasn't A Meteor


Half the readers of a Moscow paper believe that the meteorite was, say, a UFO or message from God.

A Moscow newspaper has revealed a poll that says around half its readers believe last week's exploding Chelyabinsk meteor [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122150-Hundreds-Injured-In-Russia-Meteorite-Near-Miss] wasn't actually a meteor at all. The paper in question is Noviye Izvestia, which the Christian Science Monitor reports is a "fairly staid Moscow daily." Half of Russians polled thought that the meteor was probably a secret U.S. weapon test, an alien spacecraft, a ballistic missile, a message from God, or even "an extraterrestrial Trojan horse carrying a deadly space virus to wipe out the Earth." Russians are reluctant to trust the official story because during the Soviet era there were centrally controlled campaigns of misinformation about disasters and events surrounding national security, thus many turn to rumor and speculation for their version of events.

"Our people remember the Soviet past, when news of disasters was concealed or lied about," Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of an independent Moscow polling agency told Christian Science Monitor. "We have no scientific polls on what people think about the Chelyabinsk event last week, but it's safe to assume the majority of Russians accept that it was a meteorite. However, our past surveys show that up to 25 percent of Russians do believe in UFOs. A lot of our people just prefer not to accept the safe explanations they were taught at school. Even when all necessary information is available, they don't want to believe it."

Source: Christian Science Monitor [http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0222/Was-Chelyabinsk-meteor-actually-a-meteor-Many-Russians-don-t-think-so]


Permalink

 

[TheSYLOH]

Sigh....
Why would the US government want a meteor launcher when they got nuclear ballistic missiles.
Also, if the US gov up and decided to nuke Russia for no reason, Why pick the middle of fucking nowhere, Siberia.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Sigh....
Why would the US government want a meteor launcher when they got nuclear ballistic missiles.
Also, if the US gov up and decided to nuke Russia for no reason, Why pick the middle of fucking nowhere, Siberia.

You'd be surprised what kind of important goodies governments like to hide in "the middle of fucking nowhere".

OT: I find it troubling that lately it seems alot of old cold war paranoia has started floating around. I rather thought we were past this; aspiring Bond villain President Putin withstanding that is.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Most eastern European countries' people believe in conspiracy theories & such UFO-type-things.

I know because I lived there during my childhood(EE, not Chelyabinsk)

 

[mateushac]

You'd be surprised what kind of important goodies governments like to hide in "the middle of fucking nowhere".

OT: I find it troubling that lately it seems alot of old cold war paranoia has started floating around. I rather thought we were past this; aspiring Bond villain President Putin withstanding that is.

I blame videogames!

 

[CriticalMiss]

Maybe it was a giant ball of garbage launched in to space only to return years later and wreak havoc? I saw a documentary about it called 'Futurama'. If it was a weapons test by the USA, why would they test a weapon by firing it at a country that, historically speaking, would love to retaliate with their nuclear doom arsenal? There is lots of ocean/desert/France to test weapons in without causing WW3.

 

[Do4600]

It can't be a UFO, because it's been identified as a meteorite.

 

[Quaxar]

But on the other hand, half the Moscow population is probably shitfaced drunks who spend the whole day watching reruns of that awful program where camera teams will follow emergency services around and play completely uncensored weekly best-ofs of car crashes and suicides in national television.

 

[6urk17s]

And if this would have happened in the USA you would instead have "Some Americans think Meteor wasn't a meteor" and claim that it was the Russians bombarding them.

USA and Russian Federation is not so much different from one another. Except one is more Crazy Awesome.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Sigh....
Why would the US government want a meteor launcher when they got nuclear ballistic missiles.
Also, if the US gov up and decided to nuke Russia for no reason, Why pick the middle of fucking nowhere, Siberia.

Cause we need to remind them Ruskies who's boss! Also, dropping shit from space can create explosions bigger than nukes with less radioactive fallout (heavy things like Uranium rods). Not that we're planning on wiping out all the other nations on Earth and creating a 'Murican utopia or anything

 

[bificommander]

Considering the number of Americans who'd have believed it had been the UN, the New World Order, or something supernatural, I can't say it suprises me. This is about as stupid as claiming black helicopters perform weapon tests on american farmlands, causing the cattle mutilations. You typically don't test your weapon where the enemy can see it better than you can. You only deploy it when you know it works, and then generally only if you're at war.


I guess the captcha-generator is a conspiracy-believer too: 'first contact'.

 

[Xan Krieger]

We in the US got the message and the message said "Throw money into space rock detection equipment". Good enough for $500 million in NASA funding, so in a sense space just threw NASA a huge payday.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

So, half of Russia (or at least half of the people polled) have the same belief as /x/ regarding the meteor?

It is amazing how some people think that SOMEONE has to be blame for every single event.

 

[orangeban]

Honestly, I'd distrust the Russian government's official message if I were them, so I can't really blame them.

 

[Hazzard]

Some Russian people believe that Stalin is frozed in a block of ice to preserve him for the future, why does people believing in a conspiracy count as news?

 

[Doclector]

I find this interesting, actually. Governments seem to forget their people's trust is a finite resource. Break that trust badly enough, and it becomes "the boy who cried wolf" or more like "the government who cried meteor". They lied before, why would they not lie again?

Here we have a country where government deception, it seems, has become inbedded into the national conciousness, to the point where it isn't crazy to think up conspiracies, it's wise.

 

[Brainwreck]

It's just a combination of a loooooong series of unjust governments grossly abusing their power, ignorance, and vodka.

 

[antipunt]

Mmmm...

>.>

still doesn't top North Korea and dat holy hummingbird

>.<

 

[HardkorSB]

Sigh....
Why would the US government want a meteor launcher when they got nuclear ballistic missiles.
Also, if the US gov up and decided to nuke Russia for no reason, Why pick the middle of fucking nowhere, Siberia.

They would shoot a missile and WWIII would break out.
A meteor falling is just an act of nature, no conflict over that.
Why in Siberia? Because it was a test and not an actual attack.

Maybe it's really the Transformers?