Closing off the Kerch Strait prevents access to the Sea of Azov, but not to the rest of the Black Sea.
If you want to close off the whole Black Sea, you’d better take Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople).
By the way, wasn’t the Crimean War caused by Russian moves on Constantinople, in the nineteenth century?
On the Crimean War I think that issue needs to be informed by “the harvest of the steppes”...
“For over three centuries, the military of the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Horde conducted slave raids primarily in lands controlled by Russia[a] and Lithuania-Poland[b] as well as other territories.
Their main purpose was the capture of slaves,[1] most of whom were exported to the Ottoman slave markets in Constantinople or elsewhere in the Middle East.”
I’m sympathetic to Russia’s Crimean claims. Just wish they’d gone about it more peacefully and diplomatically.
My bet is on Russia/Syria/Iran/China alliance verse a emasculated feminized and soft NATO alliance.
“If you want to close off the whole Black Sea, you’d better take Istanbul”
Or sink a couple of bulk carriers off of Canakale in the Dardanelles Strait.
“ If you want to close off the whole Black Sea, you’d better take Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople).”
Hey...you one of the Four Lads?