Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov was not the man he once was in the Kremlin hierarchy. Watching him last week as he tried to answer the West's challenge, his opposite numbers concluded that he had been relegated to the status of an "operator." He had the air of a man quoting from something. But the bland and deceptive phrases he rolled out were still an instructive lesson in Russian truespeak, a code designed to confuse the inattentive. Herewith, a running translation of Molotovisms:
ΒΆ"The principal obstacle to security in Europe is the existence of military groupings." Meaning: We cannot push European countries...
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