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Yeah, truthfully, I'm not at all surprised that people would lie, cheat, backstab, etc., etc. Heck, we already went over at least some of that back in the Ep. 3-4 discussion over U.S. TSF development focus on anti-TSF combat, and a wander over to the game thread will talk about how such internal nonsense continues to go on in the MLA universe.
A quick glance at, say, WWII history will show that while rivals can and do work together against a common threat, they don't always do so very well and they always pursue their own agenda while doing so. The Soviets are no doubt very aware of their weak position and the last thing they want is a Japanese-developed next-generation weapon being produced under the aegis of a U.S.-driven test project and have them on the outside looking in. Losing a few tanks and a flight of Eishi so that the test firing can't occur (and the non-Soviet test flight probably get NOMmed as well) likely falls under the heading of "acceptable sacrifice."
(Remember, this is not about them losing Kamchatka. There were no Laser Class, the left and right wings of the field were still in human control, and bombers were standing by ready to act...just too late for Zhar and Argos Flights to be protected. If it meant that Kamchatka would be sacrificed that would have been stupid beyond belief, but that's not what was at stake.)
(Plus, hey, it's the U.S.S.R., which thus far in the series seems to be completely living up to the "Evil Empire" moniker Reagan hung on it--which is in no way surprising, given the fact that this series overall seems to come from a generally right-wing-Japanese mindset and that political viewpoint was very anti-Communist.)
I'm fascinated by the difference in Cryska this episode; she genuinely didn't seem to remember what had happened the day before (Inia tried to bring it up, but she just talked over her, which implies that Cryska might not even be aware of what happens to her, since if she was she'd be likely to stop and listen to Inia from a simple informational standpoint.). I wonder if it's a split personality or something more complex. More, also, when we see her and Inia with their Slasher Smiles.
Seriously, though, this episode shows why someone needs to give these poor animators some money. Satelight showed it's quite capable of making something SF look nice with Bodacious Space Pirates, thank you, but when they have to cut that many corners (as Chaos2Frozen) observes above...it creates problems.
Still, minor flaws aside, this episode shows more of what I hoped this series would be like going in.
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