Like tinhorns before him, Vladimir Putin talks loudly but carries a little stick. A Chicago speakeasy with nukes, Russia is a third rate power that talks a very good game. It impresses nobody but Joe Biden, who is geopolitically as preprocessing as a hamster. Putin knows he must make his moves before 2025 and the possible return of Republican leadership to the White House.

FNC: “Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that an incident involving a British destroyer in the Black Sea couldn’t have triggered a global conflict even if Russia had sunk the warship because the West knows it can’t win such a war. The tough statement appeared to indicate his resolve to raise the stakes should a similar incident happen again.

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Speaking in a marathon call-in show, Putin also revealed that he received the domestically produced Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and urged Russians to get vaccinated as the country battles a devastating surge of cases and deaths amid widespread hesitancy to get the shot. Putin was asked about the June 23 incident in the Black Sea, in which Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of Britain’s HMS Defender to force it from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. He said a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft had joined what he described as a ‘provocation’ to test Russia’s response.

Britain, which like most other nations didn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, insisted the Defender wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters. ‘HMS Defender was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law,’ Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.”

 

“Even if we had sunk that ship, it would be hard to imagine that it would put the world on the brink of World War III because those who do it know that they can’t emerge as winners in that war, and it’s very important,” Putin said. That followed a warning that if a Western ship enters those waters again, the puny Russian navy could fire on it. Hahaha! Oh please Vlad, tell us another.

“It was clearly a provocation, a complex one involving not only the British but also the Americans…The world is undergoing a radical change. Our U.S. partners realize that, and that’s why the Geneva meeting took place. But on the other hand, they are trying to secure their monopolist stance, resulting in threats and destructive action such as drills, provocations and sanctions.” Taunting Biden.

On his Crimean annexation? “They don’t recognize something – OK, they can keep refusing to recognize it. But why conduct such provocations?…We are fighting for ourselves and our future on our own territory. It’s not us who traveled thousands of kilometers (miles) to come to them; it’s them who have come to our borders and violated our territorial waters.” Methinks the despot doth protest too much.