The explosion on the bridge connecting Crimea to Russian territory resonates around the world, putting ambassadors, negotiators and governments on high alert. Sources in Moscow told the UOL that the perspective of many observers and even intelligence services in the face of the attack is that President Vladimir Putin will have to react.
“Putin cannot and will not let this go,” said a senior diplomat in the Kremlin. What everyone is trying to understand right now is whether the attack would be classified by the Russians as an example of a threat to national territory.
How important is it? A few weeks ago, Putin signaled that he would only use strategic or nuclear weapons when his territory was threatened or there was an “existential” risk to the country.
well. If such an event is seen as an attack on Russian soil, the fear is that the war may be entering its most threatening phase. In the capitals, the military and governments are probing this Saturday to see if Putin’s response will be conventional, nuclear or cyber.
Everyone at the UN remembers the statement made by the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, when he warned Ukrainians that any attack on the bridge in Crimea would have consequences. “I hope they understand what the goal of retaliation is,” he said.
Bridge, in fact, is not just any business. For Putin, this is a symbol of the annexation of the peninsula and the completion of a “dream” of several generations of Russians. “Finally, the miracle happened,” he said at the opening of the study in 2018.
In the same year, on a trip to the city of Yalta and other parts of the Crimea, it was clear that the Russian strategy was to intensify infrastructure work to reassure the local population that annexation would result in an improvement in their living conditions.
But whenever I tried to get the opinion of citizens—at the vegetable market, in restaurants, or among public officials—I was told not to ask that question. “We cannot answer these questions,” said a food vendor at a traditional market in Yalta.
Another concern among diplomats today, at least in the West, is the complete absence of channels for dialogue with the Kremlin today. With the sanctions that isolating Russia in the financial, diplomatic and commercial fields, the negotiation areas have been narrowed to a large extent.
But today, governments in different parts of the world are looking for ways to restore dialogue or at least deepen the collapse of negotiating bridges.
source: Noticias
