Posted on 08/23/2008 4:11:08 AM PDT by maquiladora
Moscow - The Russian military Saturday criticized the presence of NATO naval vessels in the Black Sea given the current conflict in Georgia.
'NATO is enhancing its military presence on the Black Sea under the pretext of providing humanitarian aid,' Deputy Chief of Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said, according to a report by the Interfax news agency.
'This does not contribute to stability in the region,' the colonel general added.
The US destroyer USS McFaul is currently on its way to Georgia carrying aid supplies, passing the Bosphorus on Friday evening, accompanied by a Polish naval vessel.
Two more US naval vessels are scheduled to pass the straits off Istanbul headed for the Georgian coast in the coming days.
Several other NATO naval vessels passed the straits into the Black Sea on Thursday on their way to a naval exercise off the coasts of NATO members Bulgaria and Romania in the western part of the sea.
According to NATO, the exercise was planned more than a year ago.
Just standard Soviet doubletalk.
Hey Russia, its not your sea any more.
LLS
Whutchu gonna do 'bout it, Willis?
This is serious and I love it!
When I was an airman aboard the USS Independence (CV-62) in the Med during the 70s,the most we could dare do to pee off the Russkies was to anchor in Istanbul.Going further up the straits and into the Black Sea would have been considered an invitation to war with the Soviet Union.
Putin has oil money and some rusty old nukes but he ain’t no commie superpower—not yet anyway.
Hey Bush,send the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) to Sebastopol for some well earned shore leave!
So.....you invaded a country and caused the need for humanitarian aid under the pretext of protecting an illegitimate claim to a territory.
Right now, one of our destroyers can probably take out the entire Soviet Black Sea Fleet.
Can't. Warships over a certain tonnage can't transit the straits due to some 1936 accord whose name escapes me at the moment.
Turkey controls the straits and has a say in who can transit. US Hospital ships are not even allowed.
And one of our “Boomers,” and I’m sure several are already in the Black Sea,can take out Russia.
Darn!
The USS Reagan (it’s RR motto-”peace through strength”) would have made a great statement.
This Georgia thing is really turning into a major disaster for Russia. Did you notice that a Polish Navy ship is accompanying the US Navy destroyer? The Black Sea is international waters. I'm sure the Georgians and Ukrainians for that matter would invite the US Navy for port visits. And what is that the Russians business ... friends visiting friends.
They can go pound the beach.
The 1936 Treaty of London, which was the last naval big disarmament treaty, in the spirit of Kellogg-Briand, before Hitler and the Japanese showed the world exactly how foolish the western nations had been since 1919.
The strategic importance of the Bosporus remains high, and control over it has been an objective of a number of hostilities in modern history, notably the Russo–Turkish War, 1877–1878, as well as of the attack of the Allied Powers on the Dardanelles in 1915 in the course of the First World War.
Several international treaties have governed vessels using the waters. Following WW I, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres demilitarized the strait and made it an international territory under the control of the League of Nations. This was amended under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which restored the straits to Turkish territory – but allowed all foreign warships and commercial shipping to traverse the straits freely. Turkey eventually rejected the terms of that treaty, and subsequently Turkey remilitarized the straits area. The reversion to this old regime was formalized under the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits of July 1936. That convention, which is still in practical force as of 2008, treats the straits as an international shipping lane, but Turkey does retain the right to restrict the naval traffic of non-Black Sea nations (such as Greece, a traditional enemy, or Algeria).
'This does not contribute to stability in the region,' the colonel general added.
Despite the pot calling the kettle black aspect to this statement I have to agree that it is on the mark. Now if only we could get a carrier group into the Black Sea. That would be the ticket.
Ah, it was another convention signed at roughly the same time. Thanks for the correction.
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