British “Comrades” Planned Royal Navy Destroyer “Provocation” in Black Sea: Kremlin

The incident with the British destroyer ‘Defender’ in the Black Sea was planned by the "senior comrades" of Great Britain said the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov.

On June 23, a Russian naval ship fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the course of the Defender, which violated the Russian border in the Black Sea near Cape Fiolent (Crimea), according to the Kremlin. The Royal Navy has denied that it had been fired at.

 “I think that our intelligence knows who made the decision (to sail the Defender in the Black sea) there. But, of course, I think that the essence of such operations is still planned by senior comrades” Peskov said in an interview with Russia 1 TV channel Friday.

According to Peskov, "in this case, the destroyer was just an instrument of provocation. This is a deliberate, well-planned provocation," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Peskov also said that in the event of a repetition of such incidents, "the reaction (of Russia) will, of course, be harsh.”

On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the situation with the British destroyer in the Black Sea was a provocation; not only London, but also Washington was behind this incident.

According to the Spokesperson, the British destroyer coordinated its actions with an American strategic reconnaissance aircraft (tail # 63/9792-according to the Kremlin) took off from one of the NATO military airfields, "from Crete, in my opinion."

 Quoting President Putin, Peskov said, "the destroyer was pursuing military objectives, trying with the help of the reconnaissance aircraft to reveal the actions of our armed forces to suppress such provocations.”

 He linked the action of the British Destroyer to a political issue-  to emphasize that these people (British and American) do not respect the choice of the Crimeans to join the Russian Federation.