“The Russian Federation remains in violation of its INF Treaty obligations not to possess, produce or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles,” acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Russia is believed to have tested one such missile in 2014.
This is an interesting turn in the relationship between Washington and Moscow. Now that Russia softened up Trump and he’s publicly praised them on numerous occasions, he has to put on his big boy pants and figure out how to deal with an arms treaty violation. Will he be quiet? Condemn them? Let them do whatever they want to do? The only thing that I know for certain here is that Trump is woefully unprepared to deal with this situation, especially now that he lacks any type of consistency and credibility in his National Security Council.
The Russians clearly are testing Trump to see how he will react.
Just last week, a US navy warship in the Black Sea had three encounters with Russian aircraft Friday that were deemed to be unsafe and unprofessional because of how close the Russian planes flew to the US, according to a senior defense official.
The USS Porter, a destroyer, was operating in the Black Sea when it was approached three times by Russian aircraft, including one IL-38 and two SU-24s. The Navy calculated the Russian planes may be have flown as close as 1,000 yards laterally from the ship and 1,000 feet over the water, but did not cross the deck of the Porter.
I find it interesting that they chose this moment, with all the scrutiny on the White House and possible ties to Russia, to pull this sort of stunt. Maybe that’s the point,mot make it not look like they are super chummy?
Hey Hey. it’s Donald, yeah, yeah me. Look. I’m having a real hard time with Fake News looking into my people and me thinking we’re all chummy and stuff, so can you maybe do something to distract from that? Something that will make me look really good when I puff up my chest and show how not friendly we are?
Oh I take this very seriously. I promise you. Sometimes I wake-up and wonder how we got here. Wonder how the GOP could sink so low to get in bed with Russia
But mostly I believe there is a 0% chance Flynn worked on his own too.
I agree. I think it highly unlikely that Flynn would have told them “don’t worry, the sanctions will get lifted” without input from Trump, but it looks like that’s the story they intend to tell. If I’m not mistaken, as recently as today, Spicer said the president “didn’t have a problem with” Flynn having discussed sanctions in that call (pretty sure I read that earlier but don’t recall source off the top of my head). Given how long the WH seems to have known about this, it seems reasonable to conclude the only reason Flynn has been ousted is because they got caught.
Jesus. I’ve been there in a Navy ship, some 20 odd years ago. If that had happened to us then it would have caused a fucking shit storm of epic proportions.
Russia is flexing it’s muscle in a game of chicken right now and my guess is Trump will completely ignore it.
The usual response to fly-bys like this is to protest officially through diplomatic channels, and usually to issue a statement or something saying “we take this seriously, it’s unsafe, stop it.” The videos that have come out of similar incidents show the Navy crews acting with professionalism and calm, though the fly-bys sure get their attention! They are careful to document and film them, though.
At some level it happens all the time, though usually there is some underlying purpose, even if it isn’t immediately obvious at the ship level.
My fear would be that this administration either a) ignores it, and gives the ok to foreign powers to harass our ships in international waters, or b) over-reacts and has the next ship fire at the Russians, which…well, bad. Very bad.
Oh, I agree; it’s Trump I’m worried about in terms of over reacting. Even if the Russians didn’t shoot back–and I agree they probably would not–it would be a shitshow.
