‘A Shot Across the Bow’: Moscow Will Not Allow NATO Attacks on Russian Civilians

Rumors abound that France and the United Kingdom will escalate involvement in Ukraine’s proxy war on Russia. The Kremlin has warned of significant consequences.

More than a month out from a horrific terrorist attack outside Moscow, officials have made clear they will not allow civilian life to be threatened on Russian soil.

The Kremlin conveyed its stance Monday amid concerns NATO-aligned countries will escalate their involvement in Ukraine’s war against Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron has discussed sending French troops to assist Kiev’s embattled armed forces, while rumors have spread that the United Kingdom may provide weapons and even technical advisors to enable a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean Bridge.

Russian officials met with diplomats from both countries, threatening severe consequences.

“I can tell you both of them were taken out behind the woodshed and given a huge whoop-ass beating by the Russians,” said American filmmaker Regis Tremblay on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Monday. The documentarian, who now resides in Crimea, joined hosts Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon to discuss this latest development in NATO countries’ proxy war against Moscow.

“They were told in no uncertain terms that if their missiles – and I'm talking about those Storm Shadow missiles from the UK and France and the ATACMS from the United States – if they are used to attack deep into Russia, and that means Crimea, they will meet with a devastating retaliation,” said Tremblay.

“It will be worse than anything they could imagine, and they not only told them that we're not talking just about Ukraine, but ‘beyond,’” he noted. “Those were the exact words that were used in the Russian media today… I think this is a very definite shot across the bow, finally, by Russia to issue a warning to the United States, the UK and France and anybody else who's thinking of using these kinds of weapons in the Russian Federation.”

Tremblay claimed the conflict in Ukraine is viewed by Russians as an existential threat. Russia has long had an antagonist relationship with NATO, fearing an attack by the Western alliance for decades during the Cold War. The twentieth century saw an invasion from Nazi Germany that killed some 27 million Russians, while French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte launched an incursion a century prior.

Russia’s history has taught the country to take all threats seriously, said Tremblay.

“It's been stated very clearly that the policy of the United States and, therefore, of these idiotic, crazy European leaders, is the strategic defeat of Russia,” he said. “The Russians understand exactly what that means.”

“Last month they reelected their president overwhelmingly with 80 some percentage in favor of him being returned to office,” the filmmaker added. “It's a major statement that the Russian people understand exactly what is going on… The Russian people clearly understand what the agenda is and how serious it is.”

Discussion then turned to the 2022 destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The attack is widely assumed to have been carried out by the United States in order to sever a key economic link between Moscow and Berlin.

A cryptic assurance by President Joe Biden that he would “bring an end” to the project in the event of an escalation of the Donbass conflict has been seen as implicating the United States in the act of environmental terrorism. US allies in Europe have consistently declined to investigate the source of the attack.

“It's an indication of guilt,” said Tremblay, responding to news that Sweden has ruled out support for an international probe of the incident. “They don't want it to come out in any kind of formal international investigation. It's really disgusting.”

“This policy and foreign policy of NATO and the United States is so fractured, it's so idiotic, it's so sophomoric that it's hard to believe it's really happening because the stakes are so high… It's a crying shame that the rest of the world is openly not condemning the United States and NATO for this obvious war crime that was committed against the Russian Federation.”