In 1966, Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner and Theodore Bikel starred in one of the best (in my opinion) comedy films ever made: “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

In it, a Soviet submarine runs aground and is stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island. The commander (Bikel) orders his second-in-command (Arkin) to get the sub moving again without creating an international incident, and Arkin decides to take a few of his men ashore to seek help — disguised as Americans in clothes they “borrow” from a local shop. None of them speaks more than a few words of English, and the result, as you can imagine, is nothing short of hilarious . . . in good, clean, 1960s, poking-fun-at-the-Cold-War style.

Fast-forward 59 years. In a classic case of real life imitating art, a diesel-powered submarine — the Novorossiysk from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — surfaced off the coast of France last week. It had been shadowed for three days, from October 7-9, by a UK warship and helicopter as it was passing through the Strait of Gibraltar and the English Channel, where it was required by regulations to surface. It was on its return voyage from deployment in the Mediterranean, where it had reportedly experienced a fuel leak, raising concerns of a possible underwater explosion.

After passing through the Channel, the vessel was escorted by the Dutch Navy. On October 11th, Dutch authorities reported the Novorossiysk as being under tow in the North Sea due to a malfunction — in response to which the Black Sea Fleet’s press service issued this typically Russian denial:

“Information disseminated by a number of media outlets about an alleged malfunction and, as a result, the emergency surfacing of the diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk off the coast of France does not correspond to reality. In accordance with international navigation regulations, submarines are to navigate the English Channel only while on the surface.” [Chris Graham, BBC, October 13, 2025.]

But NATO chief Mark Rutte saw the comic value in Moscow’s insistence on denying reality — a habit that hasn’t changed over the last six decades — when he described the “broken” vessel as “limping home,” while referencing another submarine-based work of fiction:

“What a change from the 1984 Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October. Today, it seems more like the hunt for the nearest mechanic.” [Id.]

Good one, Mr. Rutte.

It occurs to me that if governments would only loosen up a bit and learn to laugh at their own fallibility when little things occasionally — and inevitably — do go wrong, perhaps they wouldn’t become the brunt of jokes later.

But then, we would have missed out on a couple of very good movies.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/15/25