We know that lying is in Russia's DNA. But recent lies seem particularly dangerous.
Russia is playing "wag the dogski" off of Russian-occupied Crimea:
The tracking data of two NATO warships was faked off the coast of a Russian controlled naval base in the Black Sea while the actual ships were moored 180 miles away, USNI News has learned.
And having claimed NATO warships parked dangerously close to Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea, there is this added fantasy world of battling relentless foes:
The Russian military said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs Wednesday to force a British destroyer away from an area in the Black Sea near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters, but Britain denied that account and insisted its ship wasn't fired upon.
Normally one does things like this to provide a pretext for initiating war. The Russian firehose of lies is now spewing gasoline. Which is extra dangerous on the eve of NATO-Ukrainian maneuvers in the area:
The Sea Breeze 2021 naval exercise, starting [this] week in the Black Sea, will involve over 5,000 troops, 32 ships and 40 aircraft, the U.S. Navy said on [June 21st].
Cohosted by the Ukrainian Navy and the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet, the event has been held annually since 1997.
WTF is Russia up to? Let's hope it is just a pageant.
UPDATE: Is this why Russia is going crazy in public?
Ukraine is on course to rebuild the capabilities of its navy with the help of a possible deal with British warship builder and support-services company Babcock International.
Russia warned Britain on Thursday that it would bomb British naval vessels in the Black Sea if there were any further provocative actions by the British navy off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea.
These delusional whack jobs have nukes.
UPDATE: Indeed:
British analysts were caught off-guard by the severity of Russia’s reaction: "…the Russian response is extraordinarily robust, a tad undiplomatic and way over the top,” retired Royal Marines Colonel Mark Gray told Reuters.
"Crazy" would be the succinct description.
Or maybe China demanded a little more sabre rattling for agreeing not to open up Chinese territorial claims in the Far East for five more years.
UPDATE: The Russians lied. But why would they pretend so blatantly? It seems like a very dangerous game that Russia wants to play.
A “miscalculation” in the cat and mouse game with Russia could lead to full blown war, the head of the [British] Armed Forces has warned, after a tense confrontation in the Black Sea this week.
Russia needs some serious meds.
UPDATE: An interesting postscript:
Classified documents from Britain's defence ministry containing details about a British warship and Russia's potential reaction to its passage through the Black Sea have been found at a bus stop in southern England, the BBC reported on Sunday.
So did the Russians leave this off as a message to the British or did a British employee get super sloppy?
