RATHER too much is being made of the squadron of Russian warships, headed by the country’s sole aircraft-carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, that transited the English Channel on October 21st en route to Syria. The deployment was first announced back in July and is part of a regular rotation of Russian naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean. To say, as did Michael Fallon, Britain’s defence secretary, that the Russians are seeking to test NATO’s capabilities borders on the absurd. The Russians are sailing in plain view and are only exercising their freedom-of-navigation rights, as the US Navy has on occasion in the South China Sea. The route down the North Sea is the obvious way for them to go. There is nothing particularly provocative about it, as long as the Russians don’t attempt to launch aircraft from the carrier into NATO airspace.
That is not to say that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will not be enjoying the extensive media coverage and the expressions of concern from NATO officials that the cruise has elicited. But compared with the deliberate buzzing of NATO warships in the Baltic and probing runs into NATO airspace by...Continue reading
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