Putin says US and UK were behind Black Sea ‘provocation’
MOSCOW (AP) — 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.
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.
The U.S. Defense Department had no immediate comment on Putin's claim that a long-range U.S. reconnaissance aircraft that took off from the Greek island of Crete was operating in concert with the British ship.
Asked if the events could have triggered a global war, Putin responded that the West wouldn't risk a full-scale conflict.
"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. The statement followed Russian officials' warning that if a Western warship enters the waters again, the military could fire on it.
Putin charged that the U.S. aircraft's apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military's response to the British destroyer.
"It was clearly a provocation, a complex one involving not only the British but also the Americans," he said, adding that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.
The Russian leader lamented that the move closely followed his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva this month.
"The world is undergoing a radical change," he said. "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."
Even though the West doesn't recognize Crimea as part of Russia, Putin said the naval incident took the controversy to a new level.
"They don't recognize something — OK, they can keep refusing to recognize it," he said. "But why conduct such provocations?"
Putin insisted Russia would firmly defend its interests.
"We are fighting for ourselves and our future on our own territory," he said. "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."
Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, warned that last week's Black Sea incident presages a new, riskier level of confrontation.