Word: yury
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...Soviet Union, ask the question "Who's in charge?" and the response will likely be a blank look. Back in Washington, Kremlinologists spend the better part of each working day trying to figure out which member of the Central Committee has the upper hand. Officially, of course, Yuri Andropov gives the orders. But because Soviet policy is made behind perpetually closed doors, no one can really be sure...
Continuing the diplomatic tit-for-tat, the State Department announced that the U.S. last month had expelled two Soviet diplomats posted in Washington. Assistant Air Attaché Yuri Leonov was caught with a briefcase that included a classified document. Trade Attaché Anatoly Skripko was arrested in the act of handing over money for classified documents. Their expulsions were not publicized at the time because the U.S. was then hoping to nurture warming relations with the U.S.S.R...
...Soviets would blame the incident on the high level of tension that has existed between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and call for a summit "to reach a greater understanding." White House aides say that there is nothing that would justify a meeting between Reagan and Soviet Leader Yuri Andropov in the foreseeable future...
Between them, members of the Politburo share enough foreign policy savvy to have realized the consequence of destroying an unarmed passenger jet, particularly since memories of the world's revulsion after the invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of Solidarity are still fresh. Surely Yuri Andropov would not discard his hopes for Western European neutralism, or the Soviet Union's image among impressionable Third World countries, in order to flex his military muscle. In all probability, Andropov and Co. were not even consulted about flight 007. Instead, a general on the ground followed standing instructions to the hilt and ordered...
Washington resorted to some musty translation of the radio dialogue between the Soviet pilots. As one of the pilots closed in on the fated airliner, he is quoted as exclaiming, "Fiddlesticks!" Fiddlesticks? Despite the fact that the word went out of fashion before Yuri Andropov could even have heard of Glenn Miller, it is a remarkably apt translation of the Russian. What the pilot said was "Yolki palki," an exceedingly mild oath that translates literally as "the sticks of a fir tree," and is the exclamatory equivalent of "Yipes!" on a preteen U.S. playground...