THE BLACK SEA--Russia's Bath Tub
Over at the Daily Kos, rhutchinson posted an interesting diary, Vice President's "Combative Mood" Puts the Navy At Risk. Vice President Dick Cheney slipped into Georgia the other day under the radar of the American press obsessed with Sara Palin’s sudden rise and proceeded to make that part of the world even more dangerous with his bluster and in-your-face provocations to the Russians. I have been particularly alarmed at the Dark Sith Lord’s pathetic eagerness to put the U.S. Navy in harm’s way. This was the comment I posted:
Even more alarming than Cheney’s bluster and the use of the Navy’s most sophisticated command ship, USS Mount Whitney, Flag Ship of the 6th Fleet, in the dual role of show-the-flag-gunboat and tramp freighter, is the possibility of a beefed-up, regular U.S. Naval presence in the Black Sea.
Do Cheney and his supposedly genius neo-con strategic thinkers ever look at a map?
Although open to international use, including naval passage, by international law, the Black Sea is militarily a Russian bathtub. It directly controls only a section of shoreline on the Sea’s northeast quadrant, now somewhat expanded by essentially annexing Georgia’s autonomous republic, Abkhazia. But Ukraine’s heavily ethnically Russian autonomous region of Crimea juts deep into the sea from the north. The Crimean port of Sevastopol is, by lease agreement, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
While the rusting Russian navy may be a shadow of its former Soviet glory, it is easily the dominant naval force on the Sea. Georgia has a handful of small boats and aging warships Russia can easily bottle up in port. The feeble Ukranian Navy, led by two largely obsolete frigates was peeled away from the old Soviet Black Sea Fleet after independence. It uncomfortably shares headquarters and port facilities with the Russian Fleet in Sevastopol and in crisis is at the mercy of the larger, more modern force.
NATO ally Turkey has a formidable, modern Navy (5th largest in the world), but it lacks deep water ports on it northern shore. Most of the force is deployed in the Mediterranean or in port at Istanbul. Its Black Sea force is based at the Bosporus. Although Turkey is Russia’s historic rival in the Black Sea and it blocks its dreams of a warm water, southern port with unrestricted access to deep water world trade routes, Turkey seems little inclined to join the U.S. in a game of twisting the Bear’s tail.
More important than ports, surface and submarine forces however, is Russia’s ability to dominate the Black Sea with medium and long range anti-ship missiles protectively nestled in the rugged Caucus mountains. These rockets are much more sophisticated and powerful than the Iranian missiles that can shut down the Red Sea at will. And some of them are capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads.
As Cheney departs Georgia, he is off to Ukraine to work more mischief. He promises to bring both nations into full NATO membership which would then be an excuse for regular “joint Naval exercises” with the U.S. Navy on the Black Sea. The Russians have clearly said that this is an unacceptable to them as Soviet missiles in Cuba were to the US. This is a highly dangerous military/naval confrontation.
And if the Black Sea is indeed a Russian bathtub, then Cheney threatens to make our Navy ships fish in that tub. And you know what happens to fish in a bathtub.