Related: “The battle for Azov: Round 1 goes to Russia” | Brookings, December 3, 2018 | “Russia confirms signing agreement with Ukraine on fishing in the Sea of Azov” | UAWire, March 4, 2019 — Brookings had recounted the Russian vessel ramming of a Ukrainian fishing boat earlier in 2018, a period in which the Ukrainian fishing fleet on the Sea of Azov had been harassed and run off its own territory.
It remains to be seen whether the treaty will see Ukraine’s Sea of Azov fleet restored to normal operations in frequency, area, and yields.
“Chinese Ship Sinks PH Vessel, Abandons 22 Pinoy Fisherman | ABS-CBN News, 6/12/2019 — ” The Armed Forces’ Western Command said the incident was “far from accidental” and likened it to a “hit and run.”
The above referenced incident also involved a direct ramming but against a target at anchor.
What was its purpose?
“Tankers Off Iran Hit by Suspected Torpedos” | WSJ \ 6/13/2019
Earlier: “Two Saudi oil tankers among ‘sabotaged’ ships off UAE coast” | Al Jazeera, 5/13/2019.
“Gulf of Oman tankers attacked” | CNN, June 13, 2019, Updated 1:30 p.m. ET.
BackChannels wonders if the enemies of liberal democracy have not chosen the subtleties of seaborne violence to launch attacks that may be received as ambiguous by the western public. The Bush Administration’s WMD cover, which may have been more true in behind-the-curtains details and regime tendencies than in blatant near-time evidence may have damaged future-claims credibility as regards the authenticity of official narratives in the run-ups to war — or, for this blog, the bridge between less obvious and more obvious war.
Did the clump of snow just happen to fall on one’s shoulders or was it hurled?
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Almost by definition, remove events, and especially those at sea, would seem little observed by other than dock and seafaring workers and then, of course, the parties to military listening-watching activities.
China, Russia, and Iran appear to wish for every greater power and control over populations and wealth in the world through the imposition of Draconian laws using Orwellian methods or tools to keep their elites enriched and their subject populations dumb in relation to their grooming at best (and literally so beneath the shadow of the “Islamic Revolution” in Iran) or, at worst, their invisibility (have a look into poverty in the three states operated by wealthy political elites).
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BackChannels 