Thread by @MollyMcKew

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

So actually NATO was the thing doing something bold to deny Russian blustering, hence Russian narrative warfare to flip the perceptions of strength. /4

Russia played all its usual games here—knowing NATO denies occupied Crimea is Russia, RU went with “wah wah NATO can’t be here b/c we are holding live-fire exercises” to make it look like NATO was avoiding “Russian” waters — and NATO be like <<toot toot>> just passing thru! 🚢 /5

Russia does this constantly in Black & Baltic seas. In the Baltic, they use “exercises” to delay commercial activity all the time, like the laying of underseas communication cables.

When such naval exercises are “noticed” in international waters, everyone packs up & leaves /6

Russia: no! We chased you away!

NATO: <<toot toot>> 🚢 👋 🇺🇦🇬🇪/7

H/t @XSovietNews,
Don’t want to amp tass