Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com & Andrew Osborn and Jack Stubbs / Reuters – 2016-06-12 22:54:44
Russia Vows Response as US Destroyer Enters Black Sea
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(June 10, 2016) — The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the US of taking provocative action in the Black Sea with the arrival of the USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer which arrived in the area a few days ago, outfitting with a new missile system.
The Foreign Ministry said the Porter‘s arrival would lead to a “response” from the Russian Navy, but did not indicate what that would be. They also complained that the planned deployment of two US aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean in July was a “show of force” aimed at threatening Russia.
The US Navy claimed the ship entered the Black Sea to “promote peace” with its shiny new offensive missile system, which the Navy had described as being installed due to the “Russian threat.” The Porter is the first US ship to enter the Black Sea in 2016.
It’s not staying at any rate. The Montreux Convention limits non-Black Sea states to an extremely limited naval presence in the sea at any given time, and they are allowed to stay no more than 21 days at a given time.
Even then, the ship poses little practical threat to Russia, which has a significant Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, and the US has just the one, relatively small ship in the sea.
USS Porter “Promotes Peace” by Conducting SeaRAM Test Fire
Russia: ‘We Will Respond to
Entry of US Naval Vessel into Black Sea
Andrew Osborn and Jack Stubbs / Reuters
(June 10, 2016) — The Russian Foreign ministry said Moscow would respond to a US naval ship’s entry into the Black Sea with unspecified measures, saying it and other deployments were designed to ratchet up tensions ahead of a NATO summit, the RIA news agency reported.
Russian state media reported that the USS Porter, a US naval destroyer, entered the Black Sea a few days ago on a routine deployment, a move it said raised hackles in Moscow because it had recently been fitted with a new missile system.
US Navy officials told reporters on Wednesday the US military would also have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean this month ahead of a July NATO summit in Warsaw as Washington sought to balance Russian military activities.
“Of course, this does not meet with our approval and will undoubtedly lead to response measures,” RIA cited Andrei Kelin, a senior Foreign Ministry official, as saying about the USS Porter‘s movements.
He also said the deployment of US aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean was a show of force which in his view deepened a chill in ties between Moscow and Washington caused by Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Syria.
“As regards the overall situation of course there is a definite increase and stoking of tensions in our relations,” he was quoted as saying.
“It is all being done on the eve of the Warsaw NATO summit. It is a show of force.”
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