PICTURES of extremely daft looking cows, long strands of bloody mince emerging from machines operated by beefy Russian women whose bust sizes match those of the angels on the O'Connell Monument in Dublin and a headline which suggests that Irish beef is a bigger threat than NATO.
Moscow's most influential evening newspaper, Izvestiya, does not usually resort to such tabloid tactics, but nowadays it seems that Russia has mad cows on the brain.
Supermarkets which sell Irish beef don't label it as such and the signs we see in butchers' shops at home guaranteeing "100 per cent Irish beef" would simply drive the Moscow customer away.
Other, less serious newspapers, such as Moskovskaya Pravda and the mass-circulation Argumenty I Fakty, have had their day on the issue with headlines such as "Mad beef for a mad country", but when a quality paper like Izvestiya starts paying so much attention to the problem then the Russian consumer sits up and takes notice.
True to its tradition of even-handedness, except of course during elections, Izvestiya allowed Ireland's Ambassador, Mr Ronan Murphy, to put our country's case and he did so very convincingly, pointing out the low incidence of BSE in the country, the absence of cases among young animals, the strictness of precautionary measures and the close contacts between the Irish and Russian veterinary services.
A Russian agricultural expert, Mr Sergei Nikolsky, disagreed, arguing that German controls were stricter and that BSE incidence in Ireland was still rising.
Another episode is expected this evening, and Izvestiya intends to send its own reporter to Ireland to investigate the situation next week.
