The latter led to a case of "strategic blindness,” which is manifested in ignoring the realities on the ground in Eurasia and personal emotions taking precedence over obvious U.S. national interests. 

Mr. Kramer doesn’t allow facts to get in the way of his ideological anti-Azerbaijani zeal, being that the conclusion of an international team of doctors led by a prominent German physician that Leyla Yunus is, actually, healthy or that the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s employees in Baku are being questioned in connection with financial mismanagement at their office, a consistent and documented problem at RFE/RL in general.

Exaggerating a domestic legal investigation in Azerbaijan as a challenge to America reminds one of Soviet-era campaigns to free "oppressed, innocent Communists” in the U.S. Having lived in the U.S.S.R., I have to admit that, sadly, decades apart, for ideological misinformation campaigns, methods remain the same.

 

(NOTE: Elin Suleymanov is Azerbaijan's ambassador in Washington)