Someone should tell 78-year-old President Joe Biden and 56-year-old U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop pushing the world to the brink, sending warship close to the Crimean coast in a outright defiance of Russian navy superiority. Sending warships in the Black Sea, Biden and Johnson want to send a message to 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin but somehow the message isn’t sinking in. Putin has put NATO on notice that any attempt to breach Russian security in the Black Sea would be me with a decisive military response. Putin ordered a Russian destroyer June 30 to fire a warning shot across the bow of a British warship, putting Johnson on notice that he was dangerously close to getting his ship sunk. HMS Defender responded to Putin provocation by heading away from Crimea’s territorial waters, even though Johnson insisted the British warship had a right to be there.
Crimea is a sore topic for the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. When Western forces staged a coup in Kiev Feb. 22, 2014, Putin was busy hosting the Sochi Winter Olympics. He got word that Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was chased out of Kiev by a CIA backed coup. Putin responded one week later March 1, invading and annexing Crimea without much resistance. Putin took similar action in Georgia’s South Ossetia and Abkhazia Aug. 1-12, 2008, seizing the Russian speaking territories for the Russian Federation. Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakasviili begged NATO for help only to find a very cold shoulder under former President George W. Bush’s watch. Bush had no problem invading Afghanistan or Iraq but when it came to confronting the Russian Federation in Georgia he said no way.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitri Peskov responded to the U.K.’s provocation near Crimea’s territorial waters. Peskov called the incident “a well-planned provocation,” letting No. 10 Downing Street know that they’re on thin ice. “It’s obvious that the reaction will of course be tough,” Peskov said, warning the U.S. and U.K. to stay well-away from Crimea’s territorial waters. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 43, has been pushing NATO for membership, or, at the very least, stage military exercises in the Black Sea or Sea of Azov, that connects to the Kerch Strait. Biden just finished a summit with Putin June 18, promising each other to tamp down the tensions. Sending U.S. or U.K. warships into the Black Sea raises tensions, whether or not the global laws-of-the seas permit U.S. or U.K. forces to stay outside the 12-mile limit without breaching an international rules.
Biden’s been told by the European Union [EU], especially 62-year-old European Commission President Usula von der Leyen, that the EU wants no part of Biden’s new Cold War with the Kremlin. EU buys some 40% of its energy, including petrol and natural gas, from the Russian Federation, having no interest in deliberately challenging the Kremlin. Biden’s meeting at the G7 showed that no one from Europe wants to join a new Cold War with Moscow, all because Biden wants to assert himself a the “leader of the Free World.” EU officials, including soon-retiring German Chancellor Angela Merkel, doesn’t want to hear about Biden’s objections to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, ferrying natural gas from Russia to Germany. Biden got the cold shoulder from the G7, EU and NATO about escalating Cold War tensions with the Kremlin. EU officials want to get along with Putin.
Moscow thinks that the U.S. and U.K. have been deliberately provocative to the Russian Federation in the Black Sea. With the U.K. no longer part of the EU, the U.K. has enough problems trying to comply with the Brexit trade agreement then to push their luck with Putin in the Black Sea. While the U.K. once commanded a dominating naval presence, it no longer has the same clout, relying heavily on the U.S. for backup. Biden and Johnson are playing with fire sending warship to the Black Sea to antagonize Putin. Putin sees Crimea as essential to Russia’s warm water fleet in Sevastopol, unwilling to surrender any national security to the U.S. or U.K. “I think that our intelligence agencies or course know who took that decision. But of course, I think the essence of such operations is planned by all of the same senior comrades—those over the ocean,” Peskov said, fingering Washington.
U.K officials still have the U.S. and NATO as a backup dealing with the Russian Federation. But since the U.K. is no longer part of the EU, Johnson wants to try a new coalition with the U.S. If Johnson gets one of his warships sunk in the Black Sea, the U.S. won’t come to the rescue. Johnson must know the limits of the U.K. global reach now that it’s not part of the EU. Even with the EU, no one in Brussels accept Johnson’s provocations in the Black Sea. Putin annexed Crimea March 1, 2021. Putin has said that if Ukraine reinstated a Kremlin-backed president, he might consider returning Crimea to Ukraine. But where it stands now, Ukraine continues to make overtures to NATO, hoping the Trans-Atlantic partnership take in Ukraine into its mutual defense arrangement. NATO Secretary –General Jens Stoltenberg made clear to Kiev, NATO has no intent to take in Ukraine.
