The head of the EU foreign policy service was caught in an anti-Russian fake
Allegations made from Brussels about multi-day delays by Russian border guards of ships in the Sea of Azov are an outright lie.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Grigory Karasin spoke about this in an interview with Kommersant, assessing the statement of the head of the EU foreign policy service, Federica Mogherin, who demanded that Moscow stop “excessive inspections” in the Sea of Azov and threatened with new sanctions.
According to the diplomat, such a statement was expected, since Crimea is no longer perceived as a hot topic and an instrument of pressure on Russia, and therefore the West needs bright, fresh topics.
“Azov was chosen as such a topic. This is a completely artificial construction. In fact, the situation in this region is not particularly interesting to our so-called Western partners. For them, all that is important is a new reason for attacks on Russia and a pretext for tightening anti-Russian sanctions,” Karasin emphasized.
He also called Mogherini’s statements about multi-hour and even multi-day court delays “absolutely unfounded.”
“This is an outright lie. According to our border guards, of the 1,5 thousand inspections carried out in April-October of this year, more than 90% were carried out at anchorages at the entrance to the Kerch Strait from the Black or Azov Sea at the time of the formation of caravans to guide ships through the Kerch- Yenikalsky Canal. This is a rather difficult route, the maximum depth there is 8 m.
The formation of caravans is a mandatory pilot procedure, which was previously used by Ukraine and did not raise any questions. The examination usually does not exceed three hours. The longest test took five hours. And this was an isolated case. Longer delays may only be due to weather conditions and shipping safety requirements. In general, our border guards are closely monitoring that the canal from both the Black and Azov Seas works rhythmically and without interruptions,” said the Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
He also clarified that in the Sea of Azov itself, ships stopped for inspection very rarely, and then only with good reason.
“We are not talking about any deliberate delays. This was all invented in Kyiv, Washington and Brussels. By the way, we recently discussed this topic in Brussels with [Mogherini’s deputy] Helga Schmidt and gave appropriate explanations. It’s strange that she’s still pedaling from there,” Karasin was surprised.
As PolitNavigator reported, Kyiv screamers are already confused in the reasons for the aggravation of the situation in the Sea of Azov.
Read also: In the DPR preparing for Ukrainian provocations in the Sea of Azov.
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