Infamous political parasite Lindsay Graham appeared on Fox News earlier Wednesday to discuss a recent close encounter between Russian fighter jets and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone near Crimea, calling for a tough response from President Joe Biden after the UAV was sent plunging into the Black Sea. Russia is warning that his comments are starting an “apocalyptic conflict.”
“What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets,” Graham told the outlet, referring to the U.S. leader who served at the height of Cold War brinkmanship with the Soviet Union.
When asked about Graham’s comments on Wednesday, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said the senator’s call to shoot down Russian aircraft went “far beyond common sense” and risked all-out war between the world’s largest nuclear powers. Considering the U.S. continues to say it isn’t participating in the war and that it’s only Russia and Ukraine, those seem like threats. If the U.S. isn’t participating in this war, then why even have a reaper drone in that area at all? At this point, the U.S. is all but asking to join the conflict.
Washington has flown drones and surveillance craft near the Russian border on a near-constant basis over the last year, providing intelligence – along with weapons, ammunition, and money – to the Ukrainian government even as it insists it is not a party to the conflict. The exact location of this week’s drone encounter was not confirmed by either government, though Russian news outlets have reported that the Reaper’s last location was about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the Crimean port of Sevastopol. –RT
“This is by no means the first attempt by the notorious lawmaker to provoke a dangerous escalation in the U.S.-Russian relations. A year ago he urged our citizens to make an assassination attempt on the president of Russia,” he said. “Does Senator Graham really believe that a direct military clash with Russia is in the interests of the voters who entrusted him with their lives and livelihood?”
Antonov continued by saying:
Is the Capitol willing to put American citizens and the international community at risk of a full-scale nuclear war? Give us an answer, distinguished Senator!
Antonov went on to say that Moscow “did everything possible to prevent this kind of incident,” including informing the international community “in good time about the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime” established in the area.
According to a report by RT, the ambassador said it is a “shame for the Pentagon to lose an expensive piece of equipment,” he insisted “it is not the Russian pilots who should be called out,” but rather American politicians, “who are inciting the start of an apocalyptic conflict.”
Russia On U.S. Drone Debacle: “We Consider This…A Provocation”