Build up to WW3 - RUSSIA Moves ANTI-SHIP MISSILES to CRIMEA

Moscow has responded to the United States sending the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun into the Black Sea by deploying a Bastion anti-ship missile system in Sevastopol, according to reports.

Image: Bastion missile complex movement on the streets Crimea.

"Unconfirmed news reports claim the Russian Navy is deploying land-based 'Bastion' anti-ship missile systems as a response to the recent U.S. move entering two naval vessels to the Black Sea," reports Defense Update.

An image accompanying the article purports to show a truck carrying some of the equipment, which eyewitnesses said was installed in Sevastopol on Saturday night.

"The system is designed for the destruction of various surface ships from an enemy's landing squadrons, convoys, carrier strike groups, as well as single vessels and land-based radiocontrast targets in conditions of intensive fire and electronic countermeasures. The system uses the P-800 Yakhont (SS-N-26) anti-ship cruise missile and has a maximum range of 300 km," states a separate report on a Vietnamese military website.

On Thursday, the US Navy announced that the USS Truxtun was headed for the Black Sea in order to conduct military exercises with Bulgarian and Romanian naval forces.

The Montreux Convention mandates that ships belonging to countries which do not border the Black Sea can only stay in the region for a maximum period of 21 days.

The move follows Russia's decision to fortify its presence in the Black Sea, with two warships returning to the Black Sea fleet in Crimea last week. Ukraine responded by sending one of its own vessels into the region on the same day.

Americans may not believe in going to war over Ukraine, but if a recent CNN poll can be taken at face value nearly 60 percent think sanctions are doable. Nearly six in 10 of those questioned say they support economic sanctions against Moscow by the U.S. and its allies in an attempt to force Russia to remove its forces from the Crimean peninsula, and try to prevent Russia from sending forces to other parts of Ukraine. Nearly four in 10 oppose economic sanctions. Last week the Obama administration laid the groundwork for sanctions against Russia.

Secretary of State John Kerry, during an interview with the wife of a former Federal Reserve boss, expressed incredulity when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. Putin said the armed men are Ukrainian volunteers and security personnel from a Russian version of Blackwater. Russia has a naval base in Crimea.
The U.S. has around 1,000 military bases around the world. The Pentagon, however, puts the number at 662 in 38 different countries.

Kerry's outrage and the corporate media manufactured opposition to Russia's supposed invasion of Ukraine would be far less hypocritical if Americans were not so oblivious to the bases their government maintains in foreign countries.

Russia warned the United States on Friday that any sanctions imposed on Moscow over its response to the crisis in Ukraine would "boomerang" back on the United States, as U.S. officials continued to explore ways to resolve the standoff diplomatically.

In a telephone conversation with Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that U.S. sanctions could "backfire" and urged the U.S. not to take "hasty, poorly thought-out steps that could harm Russian-U.S. relations," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Sanctions...would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang," the statement added, according to a Reuters report.