WAIT, THE RUSSIANS REALLY DID DIG TRENCHES NEAR CHERNOBYL? “I’m reminded of what a source who works at the plant told Reuters a few weeks ago about his conversation with Russian soldiers occupying the site. ‘When they were asked if they knew about the 1986 catastrophe, the explosion of the fourth block (of the Chernobyl plant), they did not have a clue. They had no idea what kind of a facility they were at,’ he said, claiming they were merely told that it was ‘critically important infrastructure.’ That seems absurd given Chernobyl’s infamy in the west, but is it so hard to believe that Russian twentysomethings wouldn’t have heard of it? Such episodes probably aren’t spoken of in history class or on state television. So how would they know? The military high command surely knew. They just didn’t care to tell them, it seems, possibly fearing that units would have refused to deploy there had they known where they were going.”