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Mail in the U.K. reported, “Up to 50 of? cers of the ? eet were ? red alongside Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk and his chief of staff Rear Admiral Sergei Popov after they reportedly refused to follow orders to confront Western ships.”

The Baltic is of vital importance to the Baltic Sea na- tions and Europe. Half of Finland’s international trade is with her Baltic Sea neighbors. The Swedish port of

Gothenburg, at the entrance to the Baltic, is the commer- cial transportation hub not only for Sweden, but for all of

Scandinavia. 72 percent of all goods coming or going to

Sweden pass through a Swedish port, and 40 percent of

Russia’s trade passes through the Baltic Sea. There are also numerous pipelines and cables.

Navy of? cials have noted an increased level of Rus- sian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, Baltic,

Mediterranean and Black Sea. “We’ve had the Russian

Kilos transit through, that’s been very public,” said Adm.

Mark Ferguson in January, and who recently completed his tour of duty in June in command of Allied Joint Force

Command Naples and U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa. “And they have stated their goal of putting six in the

Black Sea. We think those boats will operate in the Med, and so we see their activity increasing here.” “They’re racing against time, because of the impact (U.S. Navy photo/Released) of sanctions, of the diplomatic and economic isolation,

Provocative Fly By and their own demographic issues and economic issues,”

A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft makes a very low altitude pass by USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) April

Ferguson said. “It’s very clear that they view NATO and 12, 2016. Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer forward deployed to Rota, Spain, the European Union as an existential threat to them. is conducting a routine patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe.

They look to the West and they see unity, they see liberal democracies, they see the rule of law and constitutional government and they see this value system that is per- ceived as an existential threat to their government.” “From time to time, U.S. vessels enter the Black Sea,” said Foreign Ministry of? cial Andrei Kelin as reported in the state-run RIA Novosti. “Obviously, we do not ap- preciate it and, undoubtedly, this will lead to retaliatory measures,”

The Black Sea is not a Russian lake. Other nations have coastlines along the sea, and the Black Sea has a signi? cant area that is international waters. “In those ar- eas which are international in the Black Sea, everybody should have an opportunity to conduct commerce over water or to be able to safeguard their critical infrastruc- ture, whether that be oil-gas pipelines, or communica- tion connectivity under the Black Sea,” said Vice Adm.

James Foggo, Commander of Striking Forces NATO and the U.S. Sixth Fleet. “So it’s a very important region for a number of different countries.”

Foggo said naval presence in the Black Sea is impor- tant. “We operate the standing NATO maritime groups periodically in the Black Sea with our partners from Ro- mania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Ukraine, and Georgia. The nation of Turkey has been absolutely critical in main- taining lines of communication in and out of the Black

Sea as one of the primary [nations] responsible for the

Montreux Convention which controls access and size of ships, tonnage of ships as they move in and out of the

Bosporus. And I think they’re doing a superb job of that.

And that is critical to sea lines of communication. It is a choke point, and it should remain open so that commerce and also naval vessels can get in and out to maintain se- curity.”

While we may continue to see strident and even outra- geous statements by both Russia and China in the months ahead, let’s hope the actions are less strident.

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