George Kerevan: Scotland must not approve gunboat diplomacy of ‘Global Britain’

That’s the Crimea the Brits invaded in October 1853, forcing the demilitarisation of the Black Sea and resulting in the death of an estimated 450,000 Russian citizens. They remember those things in Russia.

As we know from the top-secret documents found scattered at a bus stop in Kent – another element of this Carry On farce – the Ministry of Defence (MoD) knew full well sending HMS Defender into disputed waters would be seen by Moscow as a deliberate provocation.

I know perfectly well that the Russians illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. But the question arises: why did the UK Government take it upon itself to send HMS Defender into these highly contested waters knowing it might end in an armed conflict? What did Boris Johnson hope to achieve besides raising the political heat with Moscow to incandescent levels?

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Most of the discussion around the fall-out from Brexit has focused on matters economic. But the Tory English nationalists have a far bigger political project in mind. They call it “Global Britain”. That oxymoron expresses their imperial fantasy that the UK can somehow stride the globe again as a major independent power – militarily and diplomatically. This nonsense will only lead to national humiliation and – if Boris & Co are not careful – to bloodshed.

Last Wednesday, we were lucky HMS Defender passed through Crimean waters unscathed. As it was, the Russians had more than 20 aircraft buzzing her and – according to British journalists on board – bombs were dropped. Russian sources said four high-explosive fragmentation bombs were dropped as a warning in the Defender’s path. Also, two Russian coastguard boats sailed within 100 metres of Defender.

As a result, Moscow’s deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, has warned that Russia will bomb any ship which disregards prior warnings that it is violating what are considered Russian territorial waters. He said: “I warn everyone violating the state borders of the Russian Federation under the slogan of free navigation from such provocative steps, because the security of our country comes first.”

The background to these tensions was set earlier this month by the transit through the Mediterranean of the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, en route to Far Eastern waters to provoke the Chinese.

You will remember that because the UK does not have enough escort ships of its own to protect the Elizabeth, we had to enlist help from the Dutch and Americans. Also, half the planes embarked on the carrier are American. Nevertheless, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (below) announced, without seeing any irony: “The Carrier Strike Group is a physical embodiment of Global Britain.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth and its mini armada did not cruise through the Med without deliberately providing a show of force. First, the Elizabeth’s F-35 jump jets (from RAF 617 squadron) held joint training exercises with Israeli air force units that had just finished bombing Gaza. Good for the RAF to know how to pulverise a defenceless population with high-tech bombs. Then Elizabeth’s planes tried out bombing for real by attacking so-called Daesh targets. The MoD and the British Government have been reluctant to say very much about what these targets were or, indeed, exactly where they were. The UK media has gone quiet about Isis/Daesh but remnants are still fighting the Assad regime in Syria.

ONLY last week, units of the Russian air force were busy bombing Daesh forces around Homs. One assumes the Royal Navy and RAF were not silly enough to bomb Syria or risk unintentional clashes with the Russians. So I expect the British attacks on Daesh were in Iraq. But either way, the bombing was a publicity stunt. One hopes against hope that no innocent civilians were killed for a few cheap headlines.

Another important reason the Brits are anxious to show off their new naval kit is export orders. It has escaped most of the British media, but the UK is busily arming the Ukrainian navy to take on Moscow – and earning a few bucks into the bargain. As a sweetener, two of the Royal Navy’s “Sandown” class mine-hunting ships have just been transferred to the Ukrainians.

But the UK has also just signed a memorandum of agreement with Ukraine to build new warships and two naval bases for Ukraine’s navy. Britain is supplying Ukraine with missile boats capable of attacking Russian vessels and land targets. This deal is worth more than £1 billion to the UK and – wait for it – was initialled on board HMS Defender before the latter’s wander through disputed waters. No wonder Moscow is annoyed.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is without doubt a state run by gangsters. By some accounts, Putin’s own personal net worth is around $70bn. That did not come from his state salary. Putin has pursued an irredentist policy of re-absorbing Russian-speaking areas abroad, especially in the eastern part of Ukraine. He has obsessively bullied Russia’s smaller neighbours and murdered political dissidents and journalists.

But giving Putin the chance to play the nationalist card – by sending British warships into the Black Sea to play tag with the Russian military – is not the solution to Moscow’s adventurism. Besides, the west is being hypocritical when it comes to dealing with Moscow. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has happily co-operated with Putin in building the Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Now nearly complete, this will allow Russian gas to bypass Ukraine, depriving the latter of transit fees.

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One can’t help feeling the West wants to have its Russian cake and eat it. Such mixed signals will only encourage Putin.

What’s this got to do with Scotland? SNP foreign and defence policy has become distinctly anti-Moscow in recent years under the influence of MPs Stewart McDonald and Alyn Smith. McDonald in particular has become a cheerleader for Ukraine and is the proud recipient of the Ukraine Order of Merit (third class).

Now, it is a perfectly justifiable stance for Scotland to stand in solidarity with those small nations (including the Baltic States and Georgia) who are being bullied by Moscow. But McDonald and Smith have gone much further and associated Scotland with the new Cold War against Moscow – a Cold War that has less to do with negotiating a rules-based international system and much more to do with the reckless, “Global Britain” gunboat diplomacy being pursued by Boris Johnson.

The HMS Defender incident is a case in point. This was Britain showing off in order to sell missile boats to Ukraine. Scotland wants nothing to do with such imperial stupidities. No-one is suggesting appeasing Moscow but ultimately the only people who can remove Putin are the Russians themselves.

The primary job of Scottish politicians is to extract the Scottish people from Westminster rule – not to back British foreign adventures. Happily, securing Scottish independence will show small nations across Europe that bullies can be beaten.