Already picking fights with Russia in the Baltic Sea, and deploying ever growing numbers of ground troops in Eastern Europe, NATO’s latest focus in needling Russia is a major increase in naval presence in the Black Sea.
It makes sense from the position of NATO hawks. After all, the Black Sea includes one of Russia’s most historically important ports, at Sevastopol, and NATO is eager to contest Russia’s ownership of the Crimean Peninsula, in which that port is located.
It’s not going to be simple, however, as the effort will mostly have to come without the direct involvement of either the United States or Britain, NATO’s two biggest navies, and the two nations most eager to stick it to Russia.
That’s because the Montreaux Convention of 1936 strictly regulates the entry of warships from nations without coastal territory in the Black Sea, restricting the size of such ships entering the sea, and allowing those ships to only stay for 21 days.
This means that in practice Turkey is going to have to do the heavy lifting in building a Black Sea fleet, with Bulgaria and Romania the only two other NATO nations with any coast on the Black Sea. That limits their existing fleet strength, as all together the three nations only have a couple dozen frigates and some smaller ships. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet isn’t dramatically large either, but the Russian Navy overall is, and the nation will likely redeploy more ships into the sea as NATO escalates.
A violation of Russia’s waters by Turkey’s warships would be a grievous mistake ,after the shooting down of Russia’s airplane last year .When will the evil empire stop ??? !!!.
Turkey violated Syrian airspace to shoot down a Russian SU-24 fighter-bomber jet that was operating in that area; and, as a response to that criminal act, Russia deployed S-400 missile defense systems throughout that area.
As you found out, Gustavo, none of Turkey’s aircraft have dared to violate Syrian airspace since. And, you’re right in stating that a violation of Russian waters by Turkish warships would be a grievous mistake; they’d be immediately surrounded by Russian warplanes equipped with radar/electronic jamming devices buzzing those ships and disabling their radar and missile systems, as had been doe to the USS Donald Cook a few months ago, in the Black Sea.
Thank God Russia did not make them ships disappear like the Russian commander told the Russian president he could do .
British navy – you’re having a laugh – the Type 45 destroyers seem to have a MTBF of about one hour
That is exactly why Putin recovered the Crimea namely to prevent the Black Sea to become a NATO sea. Because warships with cannon larger than allowed cannot pass trough the Dardanelles they will be built and kept in newly constructed ports of Bulgaria and Romania. This was plan B all along. Plan C: ships with allowed guns and/or ship-to-ship (or shore) rockets of any size which are not forbidden by the treaty. And guess who is going to pay for this. Not Turkey, Bulgaria, or Romania.
And, not the American taxpayers, either, Dieter. And, if Donald Trump wins the Presidential election in November, he’ll make sure there is NO NATO (North Atlantic Terrorist Organization) fleet large enough to threaten Russia in the Black Sea, either. The US will wind up doing a lot of business deals with Russia and other BRICS nations as well, under a Trump Presidency.
Trump must be bad he thinks he will be friends with even Putin and Russia , That might mess up a lot of war of plans
This brings me back to where we learned the bear was back . Putin was done with his first term Medvedev was president . We had donated 5 billion dollars to Georgia and Georgia had attacked South Ossettia with U.S. advisors . In one week the Bear swatted Georgia and destroyed 5 billion dollars worth of U.S.aid . The world said the bear was back , Putin apparently had strengthened Russia enough So Medvedev dared to stand up . Dick Chenny wanted to attack Russia . Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and decided Putin had a good heart at some olympic games .. Medvedev was in charge of Russia and he got nervous when some NATO warships stormed into the Black sea heading for Georgia . Medvedev telephoned his commander and asked now what can we do .. The Russian commanders answer was ” If those ships cause trouble here I can make them disappear ” I think it is safe to assume Putin has the same commander and power Medvedev had . So if you want to cause trouble Russia will respond in the Black Sea . It won’t be like Yugoslavia where Russia and China were both humiliated .
Bears are Bears it is extremely stupid to keep poking a bear with little sticks . The Russian bear is a fairly friendly bear Why not keep them that way .. Russia is more than 500 years old . They have never lost one war . Russia is now the most Christian country in Europe . I think Russia wants to be our friend . Why not vote for Trump and make friends with Russia .
“Russia is more than 500 years old . They have never lost one war ”
How many times do we have to go over that being a false claim?
Russia lost the Livonian War. Russia lost the Ingrian War. Russia lost the Smolensk War. Russia lost the Manchu Border War. Russia lost the War of the Austrian Succession. Russia lost the War of the Second Coalition. Russia lost the War of the Third Coalition. Russia lost the War of the Fourth Coalition. Russia lost the Crimean War. Russia lost the Russo-Japanese War. Russia lost World War I. Russia lost the Finnish “Civil” War. Russia lost the War of Latvian Independence. Russia lost the War of Estonian Independence. Russia lost the Lithuanian-Soviet War. Russia lost the Georgian-Ossetian Conflict. Russia lost the Polish-Soviet War. Russia lost the Soviet-Afghan War. Russia lost the First Chechen War.
So who conquered Russia ?
“Never lost one war” is not the same thing as “was never conquered.”
You are right I stated my position incorrectly sorry and thank you
Nothing to apologize or thank me for. I was just exercising one of my pet peeves. Carry on!