The Russian Navy Is Flexing Its Muscles in the Mediterranean Sea nationalinterest.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nationalinterest.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Russia’s steady development of military capabilities on the ground, in the air, and at sea has enhanced its overall military posture in the region. This experience, and lack of resistance from NATO, is likely to enhance Russia’s military posture and ambitions outside the Mediterranean.
Russia’s steady development of military capabilities on the ground, in the air, and at sea has enhanced its overall military posture in the region. This experience, and lack of resistance from NATO, is likely to enhance Russia’s military posture and ambitions outside the Mediterranean.
Is the Mediterranean the new playground for the Russian Navy?
Russia is expanding its naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean because it’s easier than trying to, compete with the United States on the world’s oceans, according to Dmitry Gorenburg, an expert on the Russian military, in an analysis for the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.
“Maintaining naval presence in the Mediterranean is a far more effective strategy for the Russian Navy than pursuing a globally active blue-water navy because Russia has neither the resources nor the global ambitions to challenge U.S. naval supremacy around the world,” writes Gorenburg. “Moscow’s focus on developing and augmenting the Mediterranean squadron is thus a far more achievable limited objective that is well-aligned with Russia’s foreign policy objectives in the region.”
During the Cold War, Soviet warships were a familiar sight in the Mediterranean.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Russia faces severe challenges in maintaining a meaningful naval presence in the Mediterranean, Gorenburg points out. Russia’s economy is sputtering, the country’s shipyards have been plagued by delays, and supplying its Mediterranean forces through the Bosporus chokepoint in wartime could be a problem.
Is the Mediterranean the new playground for the Russian Navy?
Russia is expanding its naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean because it’s easier than trying to, compete with the United States on the world’s oceans, according to Dmitry Gorenburg, an expert on the Russian military, in an analysis for the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.