Their presence must be known if they are used for symbolic purpose and not for an attack (that would be impossibly unlikely today.) As other posters suggested they simply send a message to Obama, and that message is probably about Georgia, considering the anniversary of that brief war. As a secondary benefit the sailors get more experience.
Noted and very well reasoned.
The sorry thing it was defense officials who let the info out, not the russians calling up a talk show to thumb their noses at us. As long as those cans laid up in Minsk, it is surprising they were even considerd for underwater operations.