Alastair Crooke (@AWCrooke): “Serious commentators in Russia are writing that Russia has to understand that the attack on Russia from Europe, particularly Europe and the US, but particularly Europe, is not about regime change. It’s not about pushing Putin out of office; it is to finally destroy Russia, to break it up, and to destroy it as a powerful state. So the lessons are sort of widening, and the results are coming back to us in different ways. That’s why the Russians are being so tough now and warning the Europeans and warning others that you can’t go on. You can’t just go on firing your missiles, Britain giving Ukraine 120,000 drones and some long-range missiles to fire deep into Russia to kill our people. And you think that you can do this with impunity, and you just do more and more and more and ratchet it up further and further. They say that’s just not acceptable. And I think the turning point came with the destruction of that dormitory with all those young teenagers who were killed. Twenty-one of them were killed. They said that’s the last straw; we’re not going to tolerate this, and if you don’t get it, we’re going to follow the Iranian pattern. You’ve got some vulnerable assets in different places. Using conventional weapons, we may have to hit those. Later, if you still don’t get the message, then it may turn to tactical nuclear weapons. And the Iranians understand this. That’s why they say we will only believe that the blockade on the Strait is lifted when the naval vessels are removed from the Gulf altogether, not just moved back a little bit and not just half done, and no promises about relief or your frozen assets coming. We’ll believe it when we see it in the bank account. Until then, we believe nothing.”