7-9-25

I don’t know if you’ve ever had one of those notions that you needed to do

something, but yet knowing full well that it really didn’t make much sense…..then

again, who am I talking to? Ya’ll are the kind of folks who step out on faith all the

time……but this morning I was reminded of a story that I had totally forgotten….a

story that dates back just over 37 years to 1987…..it’s the craziest story of

someone doing something that they felt led to do that I may have heard of……

Now, let me lead off by saying that there is a lot of new information coming into

the public sphere about the war between Russia and Ukraine…..Just yesterday

President Trump announced that his great frustration with Russian President

Putin is causing him to rethink aid to Ukraine…..in the wake of Putin’s

disingenuous teasings about peace talks and continuing to bomb Ukrainian

civilians, including hospitals, Trump announced that the US is considering

resumption of arms assistance to Ukraine…..A Pentagon spokesman told

Newsweek that the Department of Defense is “sending additional defensive

weapons to Ukraine to ensure that the Ukrainians can defend themselves while

we work to secure a lasting peace.”…..so there’s a mixed bag of reporting

now…..some liberals claim that Trump is too soft on Putin….some on the right

claim that we need to stay out of it…..Europe and NATO continue to be on edge as

a full-scale war engulfs parts of eastern Europe…..but what it interesting in all of

this is that Russia continues to slog its way along……remember when the war was

about to kick off, and all the world talked about the great Russian bear marching

into Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev within 4 days……and yet here we are several

years later with a stalled front line on the eastern rim of Ukraine…..one thing is

sure….while Russia is big, Russia is nuclear, and Russia is aggressive….Russia has

always been more hollow than expected…..when Russia agreed to the SALT treaty

the west was shocked to find out that many of their missile silos were in

disrepair…..reports are available online showing huge floating graveyards of the

once vaunted Russian navy….Popular Mechanics did a 2021 article about 14

unwanted nuclear subs dumped into the icy waters of the Kara Sea still filled with

nuclear material in their reactors……I’ve heard of former Soviet pilots who

defected with the MIG fighter jets only for the west to realize that they were ill-

equipped and made with cheap materials……

But then there’s the story about the time that a 19 year old kid beat the Soviet air

defense systems during the height of the Cold War……a kid who wanted to see

the end of the Cold War…..so he flew a private plane over 500 miles and landed it

in Red Square right in front of the Kremlin!......you heard me right…….

So in 1987 Reagan and Gorbachev were in a series of summit means to negotiate

arms controls and really to negotiate a new era that would be a move past the

longstanding Cold War sentiments……Gorbachev was the most open leader of the

Soviet Union in its history, his policies, referred to as Glasnost and Perestroika

were designed to create a new Soviet Union that was more open and transparent

to some degree, more capable of international agreement……unlike his

predecessors, he didn’t bang his shoe on the podium and make claims to

annihilate the west, or try to put nuclear missiles in Cuba……but it was still the

Soviet Union and Gorbachev had hard liners in his own government and military

to contend with…..and to be honest he was also a Communist

himself……Gorbachev was rooted to the idea of agreements that would

downgrade the US nuclear deterrent, and Star Wars which was our efforts to put

arms in space……Reagan wanted an expanded talk on human rights, Afghanistan,

and more……they never quite got there but the whole world could tell that the

end of the Cold War was closer than it had ever been…….everybody, including a

19-year old German kid named Mathias Rust……Mathias Rust was interested in

politics and had watched the news with his parents in Hamburg, Germany as the

Reykjavik Summit ended in a stalemate……At 19 he already had his pilots license

and said that he wondered if he could, in his words, create an “imaginary bridge

between West and East to show that a lot of people in Europe wanted to improve

relations about our world”……. It sounds a little lofty for a skinny teenager with

glasses to think he can change the world…..but he did have access to a plane……so

38 years ago Mathias Rust of Germany told his parents that he was going to take

the plane up for a tour of northern Europe…..I don’t know what world his parents

lived in but I think that I would have asked some questions……but Rust set out and

made stops in Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and then to Helsinki,

Finland…..at that point he decided to go for it and after several days in Finland he

took off and headed out at 170 degrees for Moscow…….if you think this sounds

crazy, you’re right…..and it gets better…..When Rust turned off his transponder

the flight control in Finland thought that he had crashed and a massive search

began……meanwhile Mathias Rust crossed over the Iron Curtain and into Soviet

Airspace…..at that time it was believed that the Soviets had the worlds largest and

most prolific air defense systems in the world……but he kept right on flying……at

one point a Soviet Mig fighter flew up in an intercept pattern, looked at him, and

flew away…..apparently assuming that nothing bad can happen if the young pilot

of a single-engine Cessna just waves at you in friendly fashion…….he flew on for

over 500 miles through soviet territory and said later that he had assumed his

chances of survival were no better than 50:50……and then suddenly he was in

Moscow coming in over Red Square just 30 feet off the ground….., The Red

Square is to Russia what the White House, the National Mall, and the Capitol

building are to the US……it is an absolute no-fly zone, and I recall hearing that at

one point during the Soviet era it was even against the law to run in Red

Square……..As Mathias Rust flew over at eyeball level the crowds were looking up

in amazement…….he circled low over a space that is so heavily guarded and

controlled but his only worry was how to land in an area that was filling up with

onlookers…..so he spotted a bridge next to the famous St. Basil’s Cathedral and

put his plane down in a perfect landing……a 19-year old kid from Hamburg had

just bypassed the military defenses of one of the worlds great super powers and

came out of his plane and started shaking hands and telling everyone who would

listen that he was on a peace mission…..well, yes, he was arrested…..and yes, he

spent a lot of time being interrogated about his purpose and who were his co-

conspirators…..but the Soviets finally came to understand that this skinny kid

from Western Europe was not a hardened spy and he was not a big time

government defector…..he just wanted to tell folks that the west was not evil and

that he wanted peace……Mathias Rust was held in a Soviet prison for over a year

……but in the interim something else happened…..Gorbachev used the

opportunity to fire a number of his hardliners who had allowed a private plane to

fly past military security and into the seat of Soviet government…….some say that

the actions Gorbachev took to rid himself of his nay sayers would not have

happened if Mathias Rust had not landed in Red Square……7 months later

Gorbachev traveled to America for what was known as the Washington Summit

and signed the nuclear forces treaty with Ronald Reagan in December 1987…….in

1988 Mathias Rust was released in a sign of good faith by the Soviets…….3 years

later the Soviet Union collapsed and the cold war era officially came to a

close…….Mathias Rust was quoted in a BBC article in 2012 as saying that with

regard to Gorbachev, “I am very convinced that I enabled him to push through his

Perestroika and Glasnost much faster than he would have done without

me.”……maybe so…… I’m sure that there were dignitaries, diplomates, and

soldiers who all believe that they played the pivotal roles in defending and ending

the Cold War…….but history indicates that it may have also had something to do

with one skinny kid from Germany who decided to step out and make himself

known…….Mathias Rust, May 1987……the kid who brought down the Soviet Union

That is one crazy but true story……but it also goes to my earlier point…..Russia is

not to be underestimated…..but they are also known to be far less than what they

pretend they are…..it’s how they have always been…..it’s how communist tyranny

works……

And Russian leaders have never operated in good faith….they will claim one thing

and do another……Trump is right to push for peace, but he is also right to

announce that he is not going to abandon Ukraine….Trump recognizes that Russia

is actually on the ropes…..Putin needs victory to hold onto power….he gambled

that the world would fear Russia’s image, but once he committed it became

apparent that there was less there than he had portrayed….my hope is that

Trump can work a peace deal soon…..history dictates that you have to look

behind the curtain….even the iron curtain, to see the real Russia……

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way