It was in late October the Norwegian frigate “KNM Thor Heyerdahl” sailed the waters of Isfjorden, including a visit to Longyearbyen, the main settlement on the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic.
The 1920 Svalbard Treaty does not put a ban on Norwegian military presence at Svalbard but limits the use of the archipelago for possible war purposes.
Russia is one of 46 signature parties to the treaty.
In the statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s portal, Maria Zakharova expressed dissatisfaction with decisions made by the Norwegians extending several laws on ports and fairways at Svalbard. This, she said, “implies the use of the archipelago’s infrastructure in the military planning of the defense of Norway, including the reception of reinforcement from NATO allies.”
Zakharova is known for her confrontational stance on key international issues and has also previously attacked Oslo for its policy line in the North, including on Svalbard....
....MUCH MORE
You do not want Mme Zakharova giving you a tongue-lashing. She can slice you up in three or four languages and serve the fillets from your liver with a nice Chianti. Or maybe that was Hannibal Lecter. Anyway we compared her to Admiral Kirby when he was fronting for Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department:
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has become a bit of a favorite among the connoisseurs of foreign ministry spokespersons.*
Current U.S. spokesman, Admiral Kirby, is a very dim bulb in comparison.**
She can kick ass on Secretary Kerry's minion in Russian, English or Chinese.
*The Moscow Times doesn't approve of her rather blunt and undiplomatic style but gives a pretty good flavor of what's changed since she took the top spot:
Russian Foreign Ministry Gets New, Outspoken Mouthpiece
If interested see "U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby is a Moron". It's really bad.
Really, really bad. So bad I thought I would try to help out. I posted the Reverso Conjugation page for the English language verb 'bullshit':
Present
- I bullshit
- you bullshit
- he/she/it bullshits
Present continuous
- I am bullshitting
- you are bullshitting
- he/she/it is bullshitting
....MUCH MORE, including the participles.
The Admiral went to CNN 2017 - 2021. And over to the Department of Defense now, Press Secretary.
He's probably going to start a war by mis-speaking. I should maybe drop Svalbard down to the #2 spot, second to wherever Kirby misspeaks/misrepresents next.
See also 2015's:
UPDATED--"State Department Lists 'Bringing Peace, Security to Syria' Among Top 2015 Accomplishments"
Cool, peace in our time, I can roll with that....
