Black Sea update: USN not off Ukraine

Congratulations to Russia.  Some of her senior officials are as, er, misguided as some of ours.

Liberty Unyielding’s Kenric Ward reported earlier that Colonel General Leonid Ivashov has claimed the U.S. is “at war” with Russia over Ukraine.  (Ivashov is not in a military command or staff position now, but serves as vice president for the Academy of Geopolitical Affairs.  He has a history of stirring things up.)

Ivashov took up the refrain of some of the opposition elements in Ukraine, arguing that the presence of U.S. Navy warships in the Black Sea is a precursor to a NATO action of some kind

Black Sea naval charade continues

If you ignore the Russians, you might think the U.S. Navy ships being sent to the Black Sea for the Olympics are there to provide security “back-up” for Russian forces.

The Russians aren’t ignoring their own government or media, however.  From their perspective, and that of others in the region, it doesn’t quite look the way it’s being reported in the Western media.

There’s been an interesting sequence of events.  In late January, after hints began surfacing in Western media that the U.S. would deploy warships to the Black Sea for the Sochi Games,