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On June 30th, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a “Direct Line”, answering journalist questions.
It lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes.
The head of state answered 68 questions. The main topics of conversation were vaccinations, price increases, and social benefits, but also mentioned NATO, the UK’s HMS Defender and more.
Regarding NATO and the UK, Putin said that Russia could have sunk the HMS Defender, no questions asked, because it illegally entered its territorial waters without starting World War Three and accused Washington of a role in the “provocation”.
Putin, speaking during his annual question and answer session with voters, signalled his anger over what he called “a provocation” designed to reveal how Russian forces in Crimea reacted to such intrusions.
When asked if the world had stood on the precipice of World War Three during the standoff, Putin said: “Of course not.”
“Even if we had sunk the ship it is hard to imagine that the world would have been on the verge of World War Three because those doing it (the provocation) know that they could not emerge as victors from such a war,” he added.
“This is a very important thing. – Vladimir Putin stressed. – I do not think that we would be happy about the development of the event you are talking about, but at least we know what we are fighting for: we are on our territory, we are fighting for ourselves, for our future.”
Putin accused the United States and Britain of planning the episode together, saying a U.S. spy plane had taken off from Greece earlier on the same day to watch how Russia would respond to the British warship.
“It was obvious that the destroyer entered (the waters near Crimea) pursuing, first of all, military goals, trying to use the spy plane to see how our forces would stop such provocations, to see what is activated and where, how things work and where everything is located.”
“Because the British warship entered our territory in the afternoon, and early in the morning, at 7:30 am, an American spy plane took off from one of the NATO military airfields in Greece – from Crete, in my opinion these things are related,” he said.
Putin said he saw a political element to the incident, which took place shortly after he had met U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva.
“The meeting in Geneva had just happened, so why was this provocation needed, what was its goal? To underscore that those people (the Americans and British) do not respect Crimeans’ choice to join the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Russian leader accused London and Washington of a lack of gratitude, saying he had earlier this year given the order for Russian forces to pull back from near Ukraine’s borders after their build-up had generated concern in the West.
“We did this,” said Putin. “But instead of reacting positively to this and saying ‘OK, we’ve understood your response to our grumbling’ – instead of that, what did they do? They barged across our borders.”
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Nato will start WW3 by pushing Russia into it, its inevitable.
I am surprised the commander of the British ship didn’t say anything extremely arrogant, condescending, snobbish, snarky and downright ridiculous as “We have 48 missiles, they only have two aircraft and four bombs.” Just another slack jawed, lapdog, little worm NATO vassal of Uncle Shmuel.
The Russian President is possibly referring to the RC-135 “Rivet Joint” that might have left Crete.
The british buffoons purchased at least three of these aircraft years ago and were training with american monkeys on their operation and maintenance.
In this manner the americans could front the british to make it appear as if the brits are still relevant and pose some type of danger to the Russian nation, which is fkn hilarious.
I don’t hate them I PITY THE FOO!
More good news today…Rumsfeld is dead. Too bad he couldn’t have died before he helped kill millions. The neos and pentagram are in mourning. Now if only Cheney and babyBush would follow suit…
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2021/06/30/the-passing-of-a-warmonger-and-ethnic-cleanser-2/#comment-802310
“Veterans Today” are CIA paid shills, like all USA fake alternative media crap.
Don’t leave out two other diabolical scumbags: the over-promoted gorilla from the Bronx Colin Powell and that gap-toothed Condoleeza Rice. They also have an ocean of blood on their hands.
Putin would not be wrong the US is trying to do anything to distract from the theft of Trumps reelection including war
Its true, the jets and ships are only for show, they dont really need them, the Bastion land based supersonic cruise missile launchers could take out an entire Armada in 5mins. A single ship is target practice.
Good point. Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile is on the way as well. Expected to exceed Mach 8, with a possible range of 1000km.
If Russia were to sink every military ship in the Black Sea that was there in order harass and bully Them, who would send more ships to the Black Sea? NoBody. All these countries that are sending their ships to the Black Sea for these ” excersizes – should understand this. Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, and the other bought off Fuckers – should be sunk .
Agreed. So why didn’t you? That ship was carrying nuclear first strike missiles. Apparently his plan is to wait until Moscow is leveled?
Given that the Russians appear to be very good at electronic warfare, I believe they could readily sink the HMS Defender. When the Dutch frigate Eversten started heading toward the Crimea coast, the Russians promptly disrupted the electronics onboard the vessel, when they did their flyovers with SU-30’s and SU-24’s. This we know, because the Dutch complained about it. Look what happened to the USS Donald Cook a few years back. A Russian warplane (I think it might have been an SU-27) did a flyby of the vessel. The plane had an electronic warfare pod on it. They totally shutdown the U.S. Navy ship. It had to be sent back to port for repairs. The crew were so demoralized, many requested transfers or resigned.
I will try again.
The Russians could probably sink the entire NATO Black Sea fleet, but to what end? No one wants WWIII in which everyone loses.
All this bravado about showing NATO who’s boss is childish foolishness. It’s venting. It’s unmanly.
Give Putin credit: an air base and a sea base in the levant; a naval presence in the Mediterranean; the upper hand in the Caucasus; taking Crimea and stirring up trouble in east Ukraine which guarantees Ukraine won’t be admitted to NATO since it would automatically trigger the mutual defense pact; good relations with Turkey, China, Iran; a greatly modernized nuclear deterrent; apparent dominance in the Artic; perhaps a new trade root across from Atlantic to Pacific; NS2 almost done and a certain fait accompli; influence in Libya, Venezuela, Central African Republic; a great covid vaccine that is robust enough for use in 3rd world; reproachment with Saudi Arabia; arms deals all over the world; and the list could go on; all at a fraction of the cost USA bears to maintain military dominance and advance its foreigners policy. Putin gets an A+ for strategic analysis and ultimately for statesmanship.
So get real and appreciate his very cost effective reassertion of Russian influence.
Why was my posting disabled yesterday?
The plan is to blacken Europe and the world and corner Russia and China, but at this point obviously everybody is tired of the absurdity of the circus.