Sometimes it is worth stating the obvious. The United Kingdom does not have a coast in the Black Sea. British warships are not infesting the Black Sea out of a peaceful intent, and there is no cause for them to be entering disputed waters close to anybody’s coast. This is not a question of freedom of navigation under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. There is nowhere that a British warship can be heading from the UK under the right of innocent passage that would require it to pass through coastal waters by Crimea. The Black Sea is famously a cul-de-sac.
There is certainly a right to pass to the Ukrainian port of Odessa – but that in now way requires passing close to Crimea. This is therefore not “innocent passage”. There is a right of passage through the Kerch strait, which Russia has to date respected. Russia has not just a right but a duty to enforce sea lanes for safe navigation through the strait, exactly as the UK does off Dover.
I expect we will now be in for a mad frenzy of Russophobia, yet again. I shall comment further once I have more details of why and exactly where Russia was firing warning shots. But just remember this, it was not Russian warships near the British coast, it was British warships in an area where they had no business other than ludicrous, British nationalist, sabre-rattling.
The UK needs to lose its imperial delusions. Sending gunboats to the Crimea is as mad as – well, sailing an aircraft carrier expressly to threaten the Chinese. There are those who see this activity as evidence of the UK’s continued great power status. I see it as evidence of lunacy.
———————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
There is no denying that this was a pure act of deliberate provocation by the RN. This is clearly stated in this article in the Guardian, and they should know:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/23/londons-recent-naval-deal-with-kyiv-will-add-to-russias-concerns
So the whole thing was orchestrated, strike a naval deal with Ukraine, provoke the Russians and test their will power. The orchestration even included a correspondent from the BBC to witness and report. But the Russian reaction was unexpected in its ferocity and so what to do? Just deny that it happened. The nose snub turned into an embarrassment. Also interesting, according to Dan Sabbagh this was just a warming up exercise for what is going to happen next in the South China Sea with provocation of the Chinese this time.
Ah, carry on up the Crimea! .. Audacious bid by Aunty to woo back Boomer viewers from GB News. It’s a classic imperial flag waver,, starring Bozo as a dashing 21c Lord Fitzroy Somerset Raglan. The peoples Sturge a swooning Queen Nictoria. Our Gav a latterday Lord Palmerston, commanding Vlad the cowardly tsar to go away and shurrup! A real Black Sea spectacular, breathlessly narrated by Jonathan ‘wider still and wider’ Beale.
” to woo back Boomer viewers from GB News.”
I’m a boomer and I know I will never watch GB News, which is aimed at the generation (most of them now dead) which preceded the boomers.
In for a penny, in for a pound, eh? Whatever are the MoD toking? …….. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/23/paratroopers-drop-desert-dawn-uk-sends-warning-russia/
Absolutely spot on, Craig.
sorry for commenting on McAfee case
have you seen it?
https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1316801215083225096
John McAfee
@officialmcafee
I am content in here. I have friends.
The food is good. All is well.
Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.
I refer back to Putins recent pre G7 speech to the nation.
Something about Red Lines and who exactly will draw them.
The Ukes having been marched up the hill to then charge into the Valley of Death on a suicide mission so that they can get their NATO mobster insurance intervention with OMC’s guaranteed no doubt – were stopped dead, as a red line appeared by several battalions moving faster then the speeding bullet of the ragbag rapid deployment toy soldiers of the ‘West’.
Bliden had to beg the Russians not to pull the trigger button on the proxies and mercenaries.
So the perfidious English are sent in to poke the bear and set themselves up for a false flag nose bleed.
These toy sailors – if they are all British and their demented suicidal skipper – must be wondering if this is such a great idea. Much like the sane ones who stood down from being fried by the Iranians last year in similar sabre rattling far from home.
The last time the not really wave ruling Brittannia put its hardware and collateral to test, was to sail it to the South Atlantic against a tin pot dictator to build Maggies image to stop her being wiped out after one term of neoliberalism.
Our ships and men lit up like magnesium in water.
This isn’t Junta Argies with ancient cast -off weapons, we are messing with thousands of miles from ‘home’ – and we the ‘sovereignty back winners’ aren’t dumb enough to go marching, marching, marching to defend ourselves when there is zero threat to our little British island.
I wouldn’t give a minutes hope against hypersonics and Russian peoples threatened yet again with invasion by the Ancient Bankers in their never ending fairytale Great Game. Dumb aristo martial family tradition fuckers that we are brainwashed to do or die for and not question why.
Get some dumb nazi type schoolboy song singing whilst letting the mutating Covid rip through our children. Get the really dumbest ‘Brit Neanderthal Ulstermen’ , not so little drummer ‘boys’, marching; Get given a final WARNING by the EU to implement the treaty of the easiest, oven ready deal never, or ELSE;
All whilst killing 3 times the civilian population through a policy of ‘let the bodies pile high’, than Churchill oversaw in the blitz of the whole Second World War! by letting Coventry and Eas London burn as The City and Westminster and multinational factories were ‘spared’…
I guess it’s time to buy a sack load of pop corn to hunker down in quarantine over the next 8 weeks as we surprisingly did last spring – against the plans of mad professor Dalek Davros Strangelove Cummings that damned near eliminated the virus last year, until reignited by his skilful eye test driving, and highly publicised bank holiday priming, eat out to superspread it, that saved their war time economic spiv boot filling by giving rise to the KENT variation doing its scything across the planet and coming back as ever more infectious strains. Yee Haa.
Bring our boats HOME. NOW, you fat fuck pound shop Churchill worshippers.
“Bliden had to beg the Russians not to pull the trigger button on the proxies and mercenaries.”
Is Bliden a hybrid Biden and Blinken?
Aye aye skip sometimes the he slapping thumb and dumb spellcheck conspire to create beauty – others not so much. E.g OMC = PMC
Time to go slap some Tories and BrexShiteers with some rotting English Scottish and Welsh fish as NI achieves a trade surplus for the first time in history with the U.K. – lucky beggars able to trade openly with the EU and have brand new frrry routes direct to the continent from Eire.
At least someone is benefitting from Brexit, grudgingly.
Notice that it was the US that got the UK to do this stupid and dangerous thing. Also thw UK seems to be committed to some sort of naval base/shipyard in the Ukraine, i.e. a fathomless black hole for money, most of which will end up in the hands of US politicians and their friends.
If Russia made very sure that no NATO ships could access the quite shallow Sea of Azov, also that they were severely hampered from cruising along the coast of Ukraine and the coast of Georgia, perhaps NATO might impede Russia from leaving the Black Sea?
Russia has a warm water port on the coast of Syria, only 70 miles from NATO Turkey.
120 miles from Russia Syria Naval Base to British base of Dhekelia, Cyprus.
So, much closer than IRAQ, when Tony Blair claimed they Iraquis could take our bases out in forty five minutes.
Typical of the British “England” Empire,what I would like to know what was a BBC reporter doing on a warship,if that was not for anti Russia propaganda then what is.
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale was on the deck of HMS Defender in the Black Sea as it was harassed by Russia’s military.
Commander Vincent Owen, the captain of HMS Defender was sent an encrypted message to make passage within the 12 mile (19Km) of Crimea’s territorial waters which is recognized by the U.K. as belonging to Ukraine as U.K. has not accepted Russia’s annexation. This was a deliberate plan by Northwood command & control military intelligence to make public this fact and provoke Russia ahead of a NATO exercise called Sea Breeze 2021 starting this month and involving UK special forces.SBS/SAS in an enactment, a performance assessment of reclaiming Crimea.
This is a stupid, reckless incitement, an affront and insult to Putin’s Russia who took back Crimea after Crimeans voted for incorporation into Russia.after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.
The Plan is to risk a dangerous standoff, any live firing will then be presented to demand the Germans to stop Nord Stream. Remember Germany and Japan are still occupied and have to do as told. As for freedom of navigation, assasinations, nuclear terrorism, ask Iran ! The cretins are setting precedents for the future which they/we will bitterly regret.
Nordstream 2 will be finished end July and Biden has stepped back from sanctioning Germany as he does not want to sour relationships.
Germany as yet has to achieve the UK’s status vis a vis the US, i.e. the tail of the poodle, always waving itself about for all to see and forgetting that tails have no teeth.
I wonder if the Second Crimean War will go any better than the first, what the Glorious Blunder will be this time round and how many military personnel will dies in it.
Russia condemned for occupying Crimea by the greatest pirate and looter in world history. Still squatting Ireland having recently torched Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen.
Look here Ivan old chap, prostrate yourself and pay homage or myself and Sam will crybully you to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
The Kerch crossing is a man-made channel. Ukraine and Russia used to share the costs and effort of keeping it in good repair for the free passage of merhant vessels, subject to presence of pilot on board large ships Ukraine has abrogated its share of the costs and efforts, so by their action, it is now a de-facto Russian-managed man-made deep(ish) water channel.
What are you on about, Ken?
The Kerch bridge (if that’s what you’re referring to) was built by Russia; Ukraine didn’t want it, and have never shared the costs. They haven’t “abrogated” anything. Russia invaded the Crimea, then built this bridge from Russia to the Crimea, because there is no land route from Russia to the Crimea that doesn’t cross sovereign Ukrainian territory. Russian control of the shipping lane that the bridge crosses constrains access to the Ukrainian ports of Rostov and Berdyansk, and Russia has “arrested” Ukrainian naval vessels passing through the strait in violation of international law.
The “water channel” was not created by Russia, or by any other kind of “man”; it has existed since ancient times, and until Russia built their bridge, it was an open seaway. It’s not a “man-made” deep water channel; it’s a very shallow, natural strait.
Please don’t post counterfactual nonsense.
Rostov is Ukraine ?. Interesting.
I wouldn’t have any sympathy if the Russians sank the navy vessel. None whatever.
The sooner the deluded overpaid geriatrics at the Head of the Armed Forces tell Boris Johnson to spend more time sticking his nob up his partner and less time wiggling it in public in the Black Sea, the better….