I'm going to blame problems happening in Cuba related to this partially on Zelensky and the Ukro-nazis. Russia would probably be able to help more if they weren't bombing shipping.
I'd be a very bad president tbh, cause I'd send these tankers with a decent escort just daring the US navy to try to intercept. The missile crisis was one thing, but if they seize this ship it has to count as an act of war at some point right?
Yeah, ideally Russia should've sent an escort with them to make it clear they're not fucking around.
Russia cannot meaningfully compete against American naval dominance in the Caribbean. Their navy has been in decline for so long. Russia is incapable of projecting power in Cuba. Even the Soviets were - they couldn't and didn't attempt to break the blockade during the Cuban missile crisis.
Only a small portion of Russian naval vessels are capable of traversing the Atlantic without refueling to Cuba in the first place. They no longer have carrier strike groups as the Soviets did. Their submarine fleet has also diminished considerably, and what's left is needed elsewhere for the very important task of maintaining nuclear deterrence and cannot be spared. Submarines are also not offensive instruments. If a submarine makes its presence known, it is a sitting duck.
If the US decides to attack Russian escorts to Cuba, then that is reason for the warmongerers at NATO to active article 5 and attack Russia on land. And Russia is not going to win naval battles either - the offensive capabilities of the US Navy are unmatched (perhaps except by China, due to their extensive collection of anti ship missiles, but they only work near China)
Contesting the US in the Caribbean is not really the point. The US directly attacking a Russian navy ship would be WW3. It is highly unlikely even the US would risk a nuclear holocaust over Cuba.
It is equally unlikely Russia would risk WW3 over Cuba.
The archive link was not happy so I don't know if the article answered, but how do they plan on preventing it getting turned away by the US Navy again? Did they send it with a Russian naval escort?
That's the part I'm curious about as well. As far as I know it doesn't have an escort. So it could be Russia daring the US to seize their tanker. So far, the US has refrained from touching tankers that are sailing under the Russian flag. They've seized tankers carrying Russian oil before, but they were registered in other countries. It'll be interesting to see what the Americans do here.
So far, the US has refrained from touching tankers that are sailing under the Russian flag.
Sadly, according to Lavrov, the EU are using the ukrainians(or they themselves) to attack them:
For some reason, no one is concerned about freedom of navigation in the Mediterranean or the Baltic Sea, where unlawful seizures of tankers have become more frequent. In the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, Ukrainian terrorists have attacked tankers. One of them - Arctic Metagas - has almost sunk and is drifting in the Mediterranean. Recently, a Greek tanker came under attack in the Black Sea. The TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipeline infrastructure has been targeted as well.
https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/international_safety/2086474/
This was published yesterday.
yeah weird how that works eh
I speculate that this charade from the EU vassals and the other occupied global south countries will soon end. Right now, it appears to be a reality that plenty of Western countries are joining in the weaponization of oil routes which will cause pain to their own economies.
With the closure of the Hormuz Straight, lots of Western countries and bootlickers like India are feeling the pain which will push them to either break ranks with the US or to collapse.
It will happen very soon and, if it does, a way to provide oil to Cuba will appear even from Latin America. Right now, the US is slowly easing the naval blockade by moving assets from the Caribbean to the Gulf Countries. This will allow plenty of opportunities for oil delivery.
Yeah, if Cuba can hold out for a few more months, we may be living in a whole different world by then.
The previous tanker sent to Cuba to break the blockade was not Russian-flagged?
I don't think so, but I could be wrong.