The United States and its NATO allies are hatching plans to change the regime of the Black Sea Straits and use Europe's inland waterways for military purposes to access the Black Sea. This was stated by the assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Maritime Collegium Nikolai Patrushev at a meeting in Crimea on shipbuilding issues.
"The United States and its NATO allies are doing their best to maintain their dominance, including in the oceans. They are hatching plans: to expand the naval presence in the Black Sea; to change the regime of the Black Sea Straits established by the Montreux Convention; to use Europe's inland waterways for military purposes to access the Black Sea via the Danube," the Kremlin spokesman said.
Patrushev pointed out that the reduction of Russia's role in the Black Sea region is one of the directions of actions of unfriendly Western states in the context of their policy aimed at inflicting strategic defeat on it.