The flexibility of Russia astounds me as it efs itself repeatedly on the world stage while China gazes in approval.
HMS Defender cut a corner to enter and then quickly leave the 12-mile territorial zone around Crimea. Such an action is known as “innocent passage” under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). ... In response, two Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Guard patrol boats moved in to intercept the Defender as it entered the 12-mile zone, and one opened warning fire, according to Russian authorities and British correspondents aboard the UK destroyer. A Russian Su-24M jet bomber reportedly dropped four high-explosive 250-kilogram OFAB-250 fragmentation bombs; but aboard the Defender, this bomb attack was not noticed or registered. The UK vessel, traveling at over 30 knots, apparently outran the FSB patrol boats and left the 12-mile zone on the other side of Саре Fiolent.
The Russians
stole Crimea and are touchy about other countries not recognizing the
conquest. The Defender Affair is just the latest venue for Russia's fantasy world of standing up to imaginary threats by beating its chest and flinging poo.
Russia is creating a rearmed NATO wary of Russia. Until Putin took charge, NATO was
happy to think history was over following the collapse of the USSR. Seriously, how stupid or drunk are the Russian leaders?
The Chinese can only smile as Russia's (recently extended) appeasement of China creates hostility in the West where once there was none after the Cold War. And given the presence of the Chinese at a NATO-bashing conference session, I have to wonder if the Chinese were telling the Russians to jump a bit higher (back to the initial article):
[Russia's senior military commander] Gerasimov surely knew about the coming [Defender] encounter while speaking at the conference in Moscow, during which the US and its allies were verbally trashed by Russia’s top generals, security/intelligence chiefs and like-minded foreigners—including China’s minister of national defense, General Wei Fenghe. The decision to take on HMS Defender and fire live warning shots was apparently taken ahead of time, at the highest level in Moscow.
Sideshow Vlad does Russia no favors. No matter how high he jumps, Russia can't avoid the rakes it keeps stepping on.
And one day, Russians fed a steady hysterical diet of paranoia might start to wonder about the loyalty of a leader who efs up so routinely to the harm of Russia. And ordering intelligence agencies to look into who is undermining Russia might not be the wisest thing in the world for Putin to do.
