Posted on 09/05/2008 5:34:04 AM PDT by Schnucki
A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.
A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.
The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.
Russia’s leadership has already questioned whether previous US warships that docked at the port of Batumi, to the south, were delivering weapons to rearm the smashed Georgian military, something Washington has denied.
While Russia again questioned the deployment of what it described as "the number one ship of its type in the US navy” on the Black Sea, it said it planned no military action in response. The Russian Army has kept a small number of soldiers in Poti, where local Georgian officials accuse them of looting port authority buildings.
“Naval ships of that class can hardly deliver a large amount of aid,” said Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman. “Such ships of course have a hold for keeping provisions for the crew and items needed for sailing. How many dozens of tonnes of aid can a ship of that type deliver?"
He said the presence of US warships could contravene international conventions governing shipping on the Black Sea, and - in particular - restricting the entry of naval ships from countries that do not share a Black Sea coastline.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Funny stuff...as soon as I read that I know what side they are, and it's not America's.
Doesn’t sound like anything can go wrong here now does it?
Russia trying to prove they are still one of the big boys. In reality they are just bullies.
does a Command ship advertise something bigger could happen? What exactly does this ship do here?
It provides its presence, and that's exactly what it is supposed to do there.
“does a Command ship advertise something bigger could happen? What exactly does this ship do here?”
It’s just a “Show the Flag” move. Not unusual. Mount Whitney is a logistics and command vessel and poses no armored threat, and Russia knows it.
Pingski
Ping
Gee, now why would Russia, who has no border on the Black Sea, complain about a U.S. ship docking in the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti?!
Gee, such a complaint would apply to Russia...
That is a very important thing to establish before the Russion sobs get really dug in.
While Russia again questioned the deployment of what it described as “the number one ship of its type in the US navy” on the Black Sea, it said it planned no military action in response.
***
Yes, just sit there, shut up and and observe you despicable Russkies while we help out our allies.
The kicker is that the Mount Whitney is the flagship of the US 6th Fleet. That is an unmistakeable message to the Russians.
If the Russians were to close the Georgian port, that would be an overt act of war. It goes way past the stated aim of the Russian operations to date.
Russia still has a border on the Black Sea. It is not as long as the Soviet Unions was, but it extends from Georgia to Ukraine. The Russians are enlarging a port along their northern Black Sea coastline that will be ready to house their Black Sea Fleet. Wont be ready until quite a few years after the Ukraine Port lease expires. Thus, Russia has a motive to take Poti. Apparently there has been some dredging problems in the Russian Port.
According to Wikipedia she is even more then that.
She is also the command and control ship for the Commander Joint Command Lisbon and the Commander Striking Force NATO.
And continuing the mirror image of Kosovo, US ships in Poti parallel Russian troops in Pristina.
(Not that the Russians are right, just that any NATO country, the US included, that calls them on being wrong is hypocritical—except Greece, and newly admitted Bulgaria and Romania which opposed the international law trampling attack on Serbia, they can tar the Russians all they want over this without hypocrisy or self-inconsistency.)
Maybe the Czech Republic and Slovakia can criticize the Russians with a straight face, too. I’m not sure I recall their stance, but except for Greece all the old NATO members should be ashamed of their double-standard.
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