Three Russian Navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine seem to be passing the Florida coast Tuesday, June 11, on the way to Cuba for a military exercise, according to open-source intelligence analysts on social media. A tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that the US Coast Guard Cutter Stone may be shadowing the Russian flotilla off the east coast of Florida abeam of Cape Canaveral.
On Wednesday, June 5, a U.S. official told the media that Russia planned to conduct naval exercises with combat vessels in the Caribbean region. The United States did not see the expected arrival of the flotilla to the Western Hemisphere to be threatening, but the official told Reuters the U.S. Navy will monitor the exercises. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been made public yet.
Cuba said in a release last week the ships carried no nuclear weapons and did not represent a threat.
"This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and strictly adheres to the international regulations," Cuba's foreign ministry said in a statement.
More
A trio of Russian Navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine passed the Florida coast, Cape Canaveral, while on its way to Cuba.
www.usatoday.com
Why are they there? That I think I can answer.
What is the US doing about it? Not a lot at the moment. Joe is taking a nap, and when he wakes up he will do what he usually seems to, make things worse. Obama made a not so funny joke that you should never underestimate Joe's power to really mess things up. Right now the Americans need to listen carefully to what Russia is saying. But they fired one of their best Russian analysts Rebekah Koffler because she kept trying to tell them what Russia was doing and it didn't fit the narrative in Washington. She's now found on Fox news explaining it to the voters when questions about Russia arise.
Most important question: Why are they there?
Because they followed thru on their promise.
But not a lot of people were listening, at least in the West. Fewer still understood the Russian answer.
What promise you ask?
The one this week when Putin was angry that American missiles were used (probably with NATO help) by the Ukrainians to blow up Russian anti missile defence systems in Crimea which is now sort of considered Russia.
As Putin sees it that means American or at the very least NATO involvement - active involvement in the war, taking it to Russian soil.
Putin said something to the effect that if Americans were going to help Ukrainians -actively, by giving these missiles and then help to use them, then America can expect Russia to help arm the enemies of America near their home soil
Tit for tat.
And Putin has a point. The escalation in Ukraine is due to outside involvement. By NATO, with US supplied missiles, onto Russian soil. (and it's not just Crimea. Every time a missile or drone from Ukraine does damage in Russia, the fact that the US and NATO have helped them do so is top of mind to the Russians).
So he is attempting one more time with feeling to get the American govt to understand what he's been trying to say. But they keep downplaying it. The response from Washington was that Russia was just posturing, to show a little force on the world stage. NOPE that isn't it at all. It's irritating the Russians.
They keep saying --Quit using NATO to push into Russian territory. Or Russia will push back.
So now Putin's sent exactly 4 vessels: a tug boat (yes) an oil tanker, a state of the art Submarine with a missile launcher that can launch some pretty nasty stuff and a top of their line ship equipped with missile launchers. I launched a thread on it here:
Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 circa 2024 edition and why I don't think nukes on American soil are next. in which I had links where they nailed down exactly which vessels had the ability to launch the new hypersonic Zircon (or Tsirkon) missiles that can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
So the message is 2 fold.
1: If you get up into Russian business on Russian soil expect Russia to give weapons and tech to your enemies like you just did with Ukraine.
2: If Russia does decide to launch small tactical nukes to put an end to the war in Ukraine for once and for all, they wish to remind everyone that their launchers are just below Florida all ready and waiting. In other words, DON'T be getting all foolish and think to launch nukes at Russia to retaliate on Ukraine's behalf because Russian nukes are ready for any funny business.
But for whatever reason Washington does the exact wrong thing every time, leading Putin to feel like Russia is under seige. It's the war of 1812 all over again. Napoleon. Or WW 2 with Hitler. It's always the West that invades Russia and they tend to look for and see that in every Western action. But this time, with this war the way it's been handled I really do think they've been pushing all of the right buttons to have a war.
Right now thankfully Putin is busy signalling that war is NOT what he wants, at least not with the US and not with NATO.
That is what he's trying to get across by using Cuba to remind America of how close everyone came back in 1962.
It's because he DOESN'T want a huge world war on his hands. (he can't afford to continue the one he's in for much longer)
