Whole Black Sea incident reminds me of what @dpatrikarakos & @IlvesToomas have said more eloquently before: for Russia, the war is the information operation and they conduct kinetic actions in support of the narrative objectives.
This was posted by Russian Embassy in Washington *before* the Defender incident
Russia wants NATO out of Black Sea, ignores that “littoral powers” other than Russia are NATO and NATO aspirants, raises perceptions of costs for NATO operations in Black Sea
The LARPing continues: here is the red folder of shame, British defense attaché, presented from Russia’s MoD 🙄
Good detail from reporter conveniently on board HMS Defender:
“This was a deliberate move by the Royal Navy warship, which is on its way to Georgia. Overhead, there are still Russian jets buzzing - there have been more than 20 aircraft above the warship”/1 bbc.com/news/world-eur…
“There have been warnings from Russian coast guard vessels, and indeed we have heard shots fired - we believe they were out of range.”
Tracks with US overflight: NATO did this to see what would happen, and Russia is shaking the cage to show they are the bravest monkey /2
“The Russian coast guard tried to do a manoeuvre to make sure that HMS Defender altered course, but the warship continued on down that recognised shipping lane, and we could see the coast as it was within 12 m of Crimea.” /3
“Ultimately, I believe that Biden did well and America comes out stronger post-summit. He raised issues that matter, that represent core American values. But to think that this will change Putin’s behavior in any discernible measure is pure fantasy,” says @Mpolymer /2
“Why give Putin the gift of being treated as an equal on the world stage? Why risk ‘re-setting’ relations that could lock-in Putin’s ill-gotten gains? … the Kremlin itself that could change the tone any time it wanted to?” says @john_sipher /3
A group of interpreters who had helped Lithuanian forces sent a letter to the Lithuanian govt:
“The situation is much worse in Afghanistan with the recent announcement of US/NATO troops withdrawal. The Taliban might take over more control of Afghanistan territory…
… and the interpreters as former collaborators with the ‘occupational armed forces’ are the first target for them…
This is the matter of life and death for former Lithuanian armed forces interpreters…
At press conference, Biden says he agrees with Putin that US-Russia relations are at a low point, which has to do with whether or not Putin wants to agree with international norms.
Biden says he told Putin he was going to check out intelligence on elex interference, hacking and see if he did those things — and he did. Russia did those things and we responded.
The usual “oh we can work together on climate change” stuff.
More on this later — this isn’t how this is going to work. Ditto with China.
“Lukashenko must think this is the way Europe will stop putting pressure on his murderous regime or helping the opposition,” Lithuanian FM @GLandsbergis tells @RenewGreatPower. “Yes, we might need assistance… that won’t make us back down from defending the right course.” /2
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of migrants, primarily from Iraq, have crossed the border from Belarus into Lithuania. Lithuania’s government says this is a targeted campaign against Lithuania using state-backed human trafficking schemes sponsored by Belarusian authorities. /3