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Speaker warns West encouraging Kiev may lead to ‘tossing international law out the window’

The Russian Federation Council speaker believes it is unjust to accuse Moscow of the situation in the Kerch Strait without sorting things out

MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, believes it is unjust to accuse Moscow of the situation in the Kerch Strait without sorting things out. She believes that it only encourages the Ukrainian government’s provocative actions, which sets a dangerous precedent.

"Whatever happened, happened. But before making any statements (like the US Congress and EU officials), please, analyze it. A unilateral approach is impossible, otherwise, these are dangerous precedents. [The incident in the Kerch Strait] is a dangerous provocation, which should be punished, and not encouraged," Matviyenko said on Tuesday at a meeting with Lithuania’s MP in the European Parliament, Vice Chair of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, Rolandas Paksas.

The speaker stressed that "if no one puts these countries that behave this way in their place," then we can throw international law out the window. "One can do anything, while others will be guilty. Let’s stop and think about the situation today," Matviyenko urged.

"Let’s sit down now and weigh the Kerch Strait incident. You may call military experts from Europe, Ukraine, Russia, or just about anyone. There is a minute-by-minute record of all this. There are log books on board those warships," the speaker stressed.

She branded the Kerch Strait incident a deliberate provocation, which has several beneficiary parties, including Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and those who sought to disrupt the Russian and US leaders from meeting at the G20 summit in Argentina. "Even this obvious situation is interpreted in a way that Russia is seen as the ‘aggressor’ behind it," the senator added.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on November 25 that the Ukrainian warships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yany Kapu had breached the Russian state border on Sunday morning and later attempted to carry out illegal maneuvers in Russia’s territorial waters later. The Ukrainian vessels ignored the legitimate demands of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service and the Black Sea Fleet to immediately halt and end their dangerous action. The Ukrainian warships carried on, blatantly disregarding these orders, triggered a chase involving some gunfire to stop them. Consequently, the ships were detained in Russian territorial waters.

Moscow branded Kiev's stunt in the Kerch Strait a dangerous provocation, while the European Union and NATO called for a de-escalation of tensions.