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From the transcript:

ALEX: All right, Alexander, let's talk about the Odessa blockade.

MERCOURIS: It is absolutely a blockade. Maersk, the biggest ship owning company in the world, which is Danish, have now said they're no longer sending ships to Odessa. If they take the lead and say that, then nobody is. And if you go to statements by Ukrainian officials, they are in absolute panic about this. It it is not just Odessa. When we talk about Odessa, we mean the whole of Ukraine's Black Sea Coast — all its ports. Odessa obviously is the big cluster of ports created by the Soviet Union long ago, and before that by the Zars, but there are other smaller ports across the Black Sea. All of them are now are now closed.

ALEX: Yeah. How did we get here?

MERCOURIS: Well, this is an interesting question because of course we've been hearing for years about the great naval victory that Ukraine won in the Black Sea. And I have made points on various programs, and you have made points on various programs. We said this together that this great naval victory is really mostly imaginary. That's if the Russians ever took it upon themselves to close Odessa and seal the Black Sea coast, (then) they have all the means necessary to do it and they have now decided to do it.

Now, I think they always had this plan to do it eventually, when military developments on the front lines made it appropriate, but I think what was the trigger was a disastrous decision, that somebody in somebody probably in Washington rather than Kiev took, which was to start attacking Russian grain ships in the Sea of Azov.

The point about that was that you know (how) they'd conducted the attacks on the refineries. They'd conducted the attacks on the Novorossia highway. They'd conducted the attacks on Crimea using drones, American drones with American guidance made from Chinese components fabricated in Europe, as we've discussed in many programs. None of these attacks were producing the effect that the Ukrainians, the Americans, the Europeans, all of those who are invested in project Ukraine were hoping for, which is a major crisis in Moscow, putting pressure on Putin to as they say sit down... to come to the table and talk, which of course in their language it really means capitulate. So they looked for another target that they thought would hurt Putin, and would hurt the Russians, and might finally provoke this crisis in Russia because the grain export trade is big business in Russia.

I mean the agricultural economy plays a big role in you in Russian politics. Russia has its own agroindustrial complex which is enormous and plays an increasing role in the Russian economy. So they they said to themselves: "This is another piece of leverage which we can use. We'll attack the grain ships in the sea of Azov." So they attacked the grain ships in the sea of Azov, and they attacked some other tankers there, as well and they attacked other merchant ships. And then that of course gave the Russians the excuse and the reason to impose the blockade on Odessa, and that has now been imposed and we can see the difference.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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