Merkel Protégé Suggests Naval Blockade of Russian Vessels

(Photo Credit: Sandro Halank via Creative Commons 3.0)

 

G7 foreign ministers release their own statement of condemnation against the Kremlin.

In an interview with Reuters today, German politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the Christian Democratic Union leadership front-runner and protege of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the European Union and U.S. should consider a full blockade of all Russian vessels at their ports in response to the Kerch Strait incident.

Turkey detains 27 Russian commercial ships in retaliation

As Russia detained eight commercial ships under Turkish flags in the Black Sea since the jet crisis had erupted between the two countries, Turkey has detained 27 Russian vessels in a retaliatory move, Russian Dozhd TV channel reported with reference to Turkish daily newspaper Habertürk.

According to unconfirmed information from the Turkish sources, the port inspectors deliberately disabled the equipment on board of one of the detained cargo vessels, MAHMUT SAKA, to create an objective reason for the detention.

Russian ships in old Arctic NATO base set alarms bells ringing

 

The rocky relations have led some to criticise the shutting down of Olavsvern Naval Base, a massive complex burrowed into a mountain near the northern town of Tromsoe, that has been closed since 2009.

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“We sold the only base worthy of the name that we had up there. It’s pure madness,” former vice admiral Einar Skorgen, who commanded Norway’s northern forces, told AFP.

Skorgen and other critics say Norway has robbed itself of a crucial foothold in the far north, forcing its submarines to travel hundreds of extra miles from their bases to defend the region.