Russia saw last week's visit of a U.S. warship to Georgia as a provocation, because the ship was equipped with Aegis missile defense radar, and Moscow opposes the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system on its borders. As Russian naval expert Dmitry Gorerburg pointed out then, the U.S. knows this is provocative to Russia, but claims the principle of sending its ships wherever it wants "without regard for the sensitivities of countries such as Russia."
But the U.S. Navy does take the sensitivities of some countries into account, notes Robert Farley, an international relations professor at the University of Kentucky who also studies Russia and naval issues. For example, it avoids sending nuclear-powered ships to Japan, he points out:
I wonder whether the Russians fully understood the implications of the shift towards sea-based missile defense, especially given the proclivity of the USN to send its ships anywhere. As more US warships become BMD capable, this may become a growing point of irritation. On the other hand, the USN has certainly made accomodations for other countries with specific sensitivities (nuclear carriers in Japan, for example), so there would be some precedent for avoiding provoking Russia. US doesn't have the same kind of relationship with Russia as Japan, though, so I don't really know that we could expect that.
Really, I think that the Russians are just trying to make the US think about it whenever we deploy Aegis ships to the Black Sea. Doubt it will work, unless we really need something from Russia in the short term.
All of that sounds right to me. Meanwhile, if you look at the Facebook page of the U.S. ship in question, the USS Monterey, it's hard to imagine why the visit was so controversial. Reading that, it seems that all the sailors did was play soccer with members of the Georgian coast guard, attend a supra, and -- this will come as no surprise to followers of the Manas air base PR unit -- visited an orphanage.
A U.S. sailor cradling a Georgian orphan baby in his strong, yet gentle, arms -- is there a metaphor here?
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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