Kremlin propagandists have accused Ukraine of “aggression” after Russia attacked and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Nov. 25 after they tried to sail from the Black Sea into the Azov Sea through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait.
The Kremlin is likely to use the incident to fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria and prop up Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s falling approval rating, Russian opposition politicians say.
They also argue that, if the West’s reaction is weak, the Kremlin will be encouraged to pursue further aggressive moves against Ukraine and other countries.
Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov’s television show claimed on Nov. 25 that the Kerch Strait incident was a “provocation” ordered by the United States.
Kiselyov accused Ukraine of warmongering and alleged that the Kerch Strait incident had been ordered by Washington in an effort to sabotage a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump at the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina.
“I’m sure that the Western puppeteers of the Kyiv regime are behind this provocation,” Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Russian occupation administration in Ukraine’s Crimea, said on Facebook.
“Ukraine, as a state deprived of sovereignty and managed from abroad, is a tool of escalating international tensions.”
Kiselyov’s show also claimed that the Ukrainian navy vessels had entered Russia’s territorial waters. In fact, according to international law, the vessels were attacked by Russia on the boundary between Ukrainian territorial waters off Crimea and international waters.
Meanwhile, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny made fun on Twitter of Russian propaganda: “In the upcoming month, we’ll see 30 talk shows per day discussing ‘the aggressive Kyiv military backed by hawks from the Potomac.’ This decision by (Russian dictator Vladimir Putin) was expected due to a major drop in his approval rating.”
Russian opposition figure Garry Kasparov said on Twitter that “if unopposed, (Putin will) take another step and another, until he goes too far and we have the wider conflict everyone thinks they’re avoiding by not reacting to his first steps.”
“The West decided that Ukrainian lives are expendable and that Putin can wage war there forever,” Kasparov added. “But dictators always need new frontiers and take apathy as permission. And this has already happened of course.”
“Putin’s Syrian genocide and his information and cyber war for Brexit and against the 2016 American elections were absolutely encouraged by the weak response to his invasion of Ukraine.”
