Vladimir Baranov, a Russian ferry line operator whose vessels ply the waters between Vladivostok and the North Korean port city of Rajin, told Sputnik News that "the US physically cannot control Russian ports -- you have to visit the Port Authority, demand documents, that sort of thing . . . . This is essentially a bluff by the US, an attempt to show that it controls the world."
Alexander Latkin, a professor from the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, was similarly skeptical: "How could the US control our ports operations? It might have been possible if the US possessed a percentage of the port's equity but, as far as I know, all of the shareholders are Russian. It is essentially a political move by the US. The Americans don't have any legal or economic basis for controlling our ports."
Maxim Grigoryev, who heads Russia's Foundation for the Study of Democracy, told Sputnik Radio that he found the proposed legislation "rather funny," given that it fails to provide any details on what a US inspection intervention might entail nor does it provide any guidelines for conducting Pentagon inspections of internationally flagged foreign vessels and foreign port facilities.
"What happened is that the US judicial authority has empowered its executive counterpart to present a report on this matter, which includes telling whether the sanctions against North Korea are being violated via Russian, Korean, and Syrian ports," Grigoryev stated. "The US doesn't mind that it basically dictates that other countries must adhere to US legislation. Clearly, this is a preparation for some sort of statement to be made against Russia, Syria or China. The measure is unlikely to be related to real politics -- because the US doesn't have any jurisdiction over other countries -- but this is an obvious foundation for some propaganda campaign."
Adding to the growing uncertainty over rising US/Russia tensions, top Russian military officials have expressed alarm over signs that the Pentagon is making preparations for a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia.
Rising Concerns of a Nuclear Attack
On March 28, 2017, Lt. Gen. Victor Poznihir, Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, warned that the placement of US anti-ballistic missiles near Russia's borders "creates a powerful clandestine potential for delivering a surprise nuclear missile strike against Russia." He repeated this concern again on April 26, when he alerted the Moscow International Security Conference that the Russian General Staff's Operations Command is convinced Washington is preparing to exercise the "nuclear option."
This terrifying news went virtually unnoted by the US media. On May 11, columnist Paul Craig Roberts (a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy under Ronald Reagan and former associate editor of The Wall Street Journal) cited Poznihir's comments in a clearly agitated blog post.
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