Cold War Tension Rises As Putin Talks Of Black Sea Confrontation

Georgian sailors wait for the start of a ceremony upon the arrival of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas at the Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi August 27, 2008. The U.S. Coast Guard ship carrying aid for victims of Georgia's brief war with Russia arrived on the country's Black Sea coast on Wednesday, but backed down from docking in a Russian-patrolled port. The decision avoided any direct confrontation between U.S. and Russian military in Georgia, a U.S. ally whose drive for NATO membership had antagonised Moscow even before Tbilisi's failed drive to retake a pro-Moscow rebel region this month. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (GEORGIA)

From Times Online:

A new Cold War between Russia and the West grew steadily closer yesterday after the Kremlin gave a warning about “direct confrontation” between American and Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Dmitri Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, declared that Russia was taking “measures of precaution” against American and Nato naval ships. “Let’s hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that,” he said.

Any attempt by countries in the West to isolate Russia would “definitely harm the economic interests of those states”, he said.

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My Comment: That's all that we need right now. A Russian warship hitting the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas in the Black Sea. Such an event will poison U.S. - Russian relations for a few years.