Soviet space program omitted reports of failure or trouble". Out of fear of admitting any defeat, reports of cosmonauts' missions leaned towards an exaggerated positive spin rather than factual substance. "The USSR was famously described by Winston Churchill as 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma' and nothing signified this more than the search for the truth behind its space program during the Cold War. Although the Space Race was literally played out above our heads, it was often obscured by a figurative 'space curtain' that took much effort to see through" says Dominic Phelan in the book "Cold War Space
History of the Jews in Russia by a terrorist. The incident sparked concerns among the local Jews of further acts against the Jewish community. After the passage of some anti-gay laws in Russia in 2013 and the incident with the "Pussy-riot" band in 2012 causing a growing criticism on the subject inside and outside Russia a number of verbal anti-Semitic attacks were made against Russian gay activists by extremist leftists activists and anti-Semitic writers such as Israel Shamir who viewed the "Pussy-riot" incident as the war of Judaism on the Christian Orthodox church. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast continues to be an autonomous oblast of the Russian