The Kremlin voiced regret (the word of the Russian government news agency TASS) over yesterday’s incident – that should be Incident – with the British guided-missile destroyer HMS Defender targeting its missiles at Crimea while in Russian territorial waters. One might try to imagine which word or words the White House and State Department – make that the Defense Department – would have employed under analogous conditions (a similar event off the coast of Florida, say) in lieu of regret.
The British warship, some 1,700 miles from home, is one of three from NATO nations in the Black Sea currently – the destroyer USS Laboon and the Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen being the others – with a veritable armada ready to descend on the Black Sea on June 28 for the U.S.- and Ukraine-led 32-nation Sea Breeze exercise. Russia also regrets the upcoming naval maneuvers, stating they could give rise to “the risk of unintentional incidents.” A person might wonder how unintentional they would be.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov characterized yesterday’s action as a deliberate provocation that violated international law. His exact words are: “We consider that the British destroyer has carried out [a] provocation. Moreover, we regret [it] as this was [a] deliberate and prepared provocation.” Having spoken those words to the Russian press corps, his duty is done and Sea Breeze comes next – with a few provocations of its own most likely.
Yet Peskov went on. Not only does he regret yesterday’s provocation, he is concerned about it. You don’t want to contend with him or his boss when they’re concerned about something. In fact yesterday the Russian Air Force deployed a Sukhoi-24M bomber to drop bombs in the sea in front of the destroyer. The British Defense Ministry immediately denied that Russia had dropped bombs. One of the few times in history – perhaps the only one – in which the nation on the receiving end of a bombing claimed it didn’t happen.
When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan completes the Istanbul Canal connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara the real fun will begin. As Erdoğan frequently reminds the world, the new canal will not be subject to the terms and limitations of the 1936 Montreux Convention as is the Borporus and as such the U.S. and NATO can send as many warships to the Black Sea as they choose to. A person will be able to walk on them from one end of the Black Sea to the other without getting his feet wet.
When that occurs Russia will be concerned. It will express regret.
I don’t think Russia can resolve this politically. All Russia can do is prepare for NATO’s attack. Sadly, the population in the west continues to go from dumb to dumber. Otherwise, they would be in the streets against NATO’s aggression and many more would be reading Rick’s articles on Antiwar.com. Even if the US does not want a nuclear holocaust, Britain will insist we get it! Just think about it for a second. They tax gasoline/electricity because they don’t want us to die from “Global Warming,” but don’t mind if we all die in a nuclear holocaust? Does that make any sense?
“Otherwise, they would be in the streets against NATO’s aggression and many more would be reading Rick’s articles on Antiwar.com.”
I can’t understand why you think it’s either or. People can deal with more than one issue at a time. The problem being the average person doesn’t give two sh*ts what NATO is up to and the only thing they know is what they hear from our MSM. And that’s the never ending propaganda about our many perceived enemies and why we need a massive military spread across the globe to keep us safe. You could completely take global warming out of any, and all, conversations and we’d still be where we are at.
“Global Warming” is the new “Opium” for the masses. If you talk to the children, you would find out it is the most dominant fear most of them have on their minds. Just ask yourself, who is promoting this fear? It is the best distraction warmongers developed to cover for their evil deeds.
Again, I understand what you are saying but it wouldn’t matter if Global Warming went away completely from the picture. And it isn’t the children that we should be concerned about, it’s the Zombie adults. You and I can have a conversation about Global Warming without losing our focus on our government’s never ending belligerence around the world. Why can’t others? Global Warming may indeed get headlines over issues about our foreign policy, and its consequences, but those foreign policy issues are ONLY reported in one particular way. The propaganda machine never stops working and until the masses stop buying into the bullsh*t nothing will change.
“Global Warming” with its flood as punishment for our sin religious vibe has been a most effective tool since 1988 for producing those “Zombie adults.” It’s effective because it prohibits critical thinking in children and programs its victims for simplistic priorities/solutions. I don’t disagree or disregard what you said. Wars r u.s., you are my brother.
The amazing thing is that, in France where I live, this isn’t even being reported. We’ve already had governance by stealth in the West (we don’t see who’s really pulling the levers); now we will have war by stealth.
It is time for people to take off their silly masks and take to the streets (and on their own, not for some stealth Soros- or Dem-party-funded astroturf organization) . . .
Well said. Although I was secretly hoping someone would prove me wrong.
The plandemic has tied the hands of social movements all over the world (except those directly funded by the Democratic Party), which means, in France, that the powerful Gilets Jaunes movement, as well as the highly mobilized healthcare workers, who were on the warpath before Covid 19, have had their political leverage completely neutralized. The pseudo-democratic West is teetering on the edge of totalitarianism, as governance by diktat becomes the rule. If our “leaders” were really foolish enough to attack Russia, we have to hope they would have their asses handed to them in a hurry, which would provoke their downfall at home . . .
The ‘ Powers that be ‘ in the US are perfectly happy for nuclear armageddon to break out. They see any war as a business opportunity, and the cost in human lives as totally irrelevant. Turkey could easily be the catalyst. NATO is merely an arm of the American Empire, one of the three empires.
the new canal will not be subject to the terms and limitations of the 1936 Montreux Convention
Oh, won’t it?.. The underlying conditions for the Montreux Convention to be brought into being remain and will result in the terms being expanded to cover the new canal – OR there will be war.
The West must ask itself, is “freedom of navigation” in some remote glorified lake the hill they want to die on.
Moreover, regardless of whether that canal is or is not under the Montreux Convention the canal is Turkish waters hence Turkey can refuse the passage of any ship unless and until a new treaty is negotiated specifically for that canal and is in place.
Erdogan is a loose cannon but he’s tangled with Russia before to the detriment of Turkey and I doubt he wants a rematch – plus he owes Putin Big Time for saving him from regime change courtesy of his NATO partners.
surely there was a russian missile aimed at that foolish british target the entire time that it was there
I take it from RR’s irony he see’s Kremlin strategy being the historical one of absorbing punishment till their opponent punches himself out, …or the Europeans come to their senses. They see clearly that the US is going to keep tormenting the bear hoping for a timorous reaction, in order to further tighten the siege.
“Unintentional incidents” have led to global war in the past. The UK’s involvement in the Black Sea – a former empire trying to regain some former glory – offers an unwitting trigger for catastrophe – nuclear war. Every empire in history eventually gets the war it seeks to avoid. For half a century the nuclear powers managed to avoid nuclear Armageddon: the very cataclysm they are blindly stumbling into now.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
It seems to be an effort overseen by the PM and “Defence”. There are a few ex-grunts in Parliament who have yet to comprehend that the Empire is no more. To top it all a BBC “journalist” was on board.
So many British willing to sacrifice themselves to achieve MAGA.
The real commander Jan Evertsen was an interesting guy. He participated in several battles against the British. He won a few but the lost the significant last ones.
His burial in the now Protestant abbey in Middleburg was a new practice in The Netherlands. Several famous Dutch admirals from the 17th century like De Ruyter were deliberately buried in the formerly holiest parts of abbeys and churches. If the Catholics would ever regain power they would not dare to remove the graves of these immensely popular heroes.
Fast forward to Sea Breeze. New reality: every NATO or Ukrainian ship which tries to enter the port of Sevastopol will be sunk. No warnings.
And that was exactly the main reason why Putin took the Crimea.
Putin did not ‘ take ‘ the Crimea, a referendum which was internationally observed to be completely above board decided the issue. Crimea is Russian, as it was for 800 years before idiot Kruschev ‘ gave ‘ it to Ukraine for administrative purposes in the time of the Soviet Union. Get over it.
British Destroyer has to be destroyed, if it pass the Russian border. I never heard anything about Russian destroyer did it on purpose
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