It would be interesting to see what the response to Russia deploying a vessel of some description to theEnglish Channel or the Irish Sea for example.
The Russians seem to me to have been relatively reserved in their response to the continued provocation by NATO nations in recent times.
I spoke to a quite senior officer a couple of years ago as he took over the station I was serving at about his previous job. "Oh I've been at JFC dealing with the Russian threat" so I asked him did he not think that the Russian threat was overplayed? "No, they're being quite, err naughty."
I asked him him did he not think that NATO lying about its future intentions and expanding into the former Eastern European states and deploying jets and troops to Lithuania was a gross provocation?"
He didn't have an answer. I realised then that he was an idiot. He hadn't thought about what was going on and was just toeing the standard line. The UK seems quite happy to follow the US in policy in this regard.
I'm not saying that Russia is whiter than white. The recent poisonings are an example, however I wonder if we in the West have forced the issue by being so old fashioned in our thinking.