Fifty years ago this weekend, on Sept. 6, 1976, Lt. Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Air Defense Forces climbed into a MiG-25 “Foxbat” near Vladivostok and turned an ordinary training flight into one of the Cold War’s most extraordinary defections. Flying low to evade Soviet radar, he crossed the Sea of Japan and entered Japanese airspace. Unable to locate his intended destination, Chitose Air Base, he made a hazardous landing at Hakodate’s civilian airport, overshooting the runway and damaging the aircraft. In a matter of minutes, Japan acquired four problems:…
Posts published in “Politics”
The Politics section of The New York Chronicle covers U.S. and international politics, elections, government, political leaders, policy, legislation, diplomacy and major political developments shaping New York, America and the world.
The results of Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6 were far worse than feared for the country’s mainstream political parties. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came close to winning a majority of votes, with 43.8%. This was about 4% higher than polls had suggested. Support for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), on the other hand, imploded. It won 17.2% of the vote, down from 37.1% in 2021, performing substantially worse than predicted. At nearly 78%, turnout was up substantially compared with 2021 – in a…