Photo: A frame from the video
British expert Patrick Cockburn on the pages of the Independent criticized the provocation in the Black Sea. He noted that sending the Defender destroyer to Russian territorial waters is a very dangerous symbolic gesture. And the whole point is that if this happens again in the future, Russia will not limit itself to warning shooting, but will open fire directly on the ship itself.
The essence of the British ” trick “was to demonstrate the non-recognition of Russian sovereignty over the” annexed ” Crimea. At the same time, hardly any of the experts who supported this could name the countries that border in the Black Sea region. Cockburn himself agrees that what happened is a provocation. “The fact that there were journalists on board the destroyer shows that the British government really wanted to demonstrate to the world the new “advanced” military position of Great Britain, ” he writes.
It is not necessary to recognize the Crimea as Russian, the author writes, but sending a ship is an unnecessary risk. Instead of scaring the Russians, this step only led to the fact that they immediately realized that this was a bluff, and decided to debunk it. “Now the Russians can threaten that they will bomb the next British ship that dares to repeat the path of HMS Defender, knowing for sure that this will not happen. The danger is that if this does happen, it will be difficult to hush up such rhetoric,” says Cockburn.
A demonstration of force can lead to the fact that the enemy will attack. Now the destroyer Defender, as part of a group of British ships, is moving into the South China Sea, and there is a danger that unwise actions will lead to a sharp response. The diplomacy of gunboats can lead to sad consequences – this should be remembered from the events preceding the First World War, writes Cockburn.
Britain is weak, but thinks of itself as a great maritime power. Prime Minister Boris Johnson supports this approach. But the gap between the real and imaginary place of the country in the world is becoming more and more noticeable.