What is McCain looking for in the Crimea?

• By  Leonardo Del Grosso ,  sakerlatam.es
• View all deals
• August 31st, 2017

in  Sputnik in Castilian, taken from Svobodnaya Pressa

Recently the emissaries of the International Republican Institute, led by Senator John McCain, visited the Ukrainian city of Jerson and the base of the Asker battalion of the NGO Crimean People's Congress (Medzhlis) of Crimea, an organization that was banned in Russia in late April by the Supreme Court of Crimea.

Russian political scientist Alexandr Perendzhiev, interviewed by the daily Svobodnaya Pressa , believes that Americans are studying the resources in the area that are necessary to trigger a sabotage war against the Crimean peninsula.

"All the time it's about the take by force of Crimea, they do not leave this idea. People who think that Americans want to return the Crimea to Ukraine are wrong. They seek to gain control over the peninsula. Five years ago, great resources were allocated for that. But suddenly Crimea rejoined Russia. 

It is the reason that under different pretexts the US is raising its center of operations in the naval base in Ochákovo. They want to unleash a war against Russia but not be directly free, but through acts of sabotage at the hands of members of the Medzhlís, "he said.

The political scientist stressed that Americans have never acted directly, but through non-governmental organizations so that no one could blame the state at all.

Recently, State Duma deputy Ruslan Balbek warned that Russia should expect further provocations.

Perendzhiev underlines that in the future, Washington could make several leaks in the media aimed at influencing public opinion to discredit the Crimean authorities and those of Russia.

The Crimean journalist, Sergei Kulik, believes that in the activities of the Americans there is nothing surprising since they act according to the same strategy as always.

"Already at the beginning of the 21st century, the American corporation RAND, which was dedicated to intelligence, proposed to the White House the strategy called 'The Anaconda Mesh' and that involved surrounding Russia with regimes loyal to Washington to expel it from the zone of their national interests, "he said.

Kulik believes it is possible that "Kiev and its US supervisors" will use not only members of Medzhlis but members of the Al Ahbash movement who were disappointed that they did not gain access to power after events in the Crimea.

Several Islamic organizations operating in Russia consider that Al Ahbash is a totalitarian sect. Its leader is the Lebanese Sheikh Ahmed Tamim. 

The press has written extensively about his ties to the president of the Verkhovna Rada, Aleksandr Turchinov, and the support that Tamim had provided to Kiev in the civil war.

Moscow State University professor Andréi Manoilo recalled that Americans have always been looking for something near the borders with the Crimea.

"They can do anything there, from collecting information and performing intelligence work to perpetrating acts of sabotage to influence the Ukrainian radicals and thus provoke them to attack Russia," he said.

The International Republican Institute is the factory of ideas of the Republican Party of the USA, that is to say it is a type of conductor of "soft force" of the USA, thinks the expert