"We suggest to opponents: Think hard"; "Our reaction will be fierce"

This was stated by the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Mikhail Popov, and he emphasized that the national affiliation of the perpetrator of the violation will not be taken into account on that occasion, "Sputnik" reported.
"We suggest our opponents to ask themselves hard whether it is wise for them to organize provocations of this type and to take into account the possibilities of the Russian armed forces," Popov emphasized in an interview for the newspaper "Ruska Gazeta".
He also said that the statements of British politicians related to the incident with the destroyer do not exclude that similar incidents in the waters of the Russian Federation may occur in the future.
"British sailors deliberately went for a provocation, however, Russia prevented all that in time," he emphasized.
Popov also said that the West has taken a course on military-strategic and political pressure on Russia as well as on the deliberate escalation of military tensions near Russia's borders, and as he explained, the emphasis is on the fleet of NATO member states, while all items of international maritime law the West interprets absolutely arbitrarily.
In addition, at the last military exercises "Defender Europe 2021", NATO forces practiced breaking through Russian defense zones, as well as transferring a large amount of troops from the United States to Europe, Popov concluded.
It should be reminded that the British destroyer "Defender" entered the territorial sea three kilometers on June 23 and crossed the Russian border in the area of Cape Fiolent in the Crimea.
The Russian border ship fired warning shots, and the Su-24M plane carried out a warning bombing in the direction of the ship's movement. The British Ministry of...