Romney Doesn't Need Medvedev to Transmit Anything to Vladimir, He'll Tell Him Himself

Awesome.

Remember when Obama was caught on an open mic telling Russian President Dimitry Medvedev that he would have more latitude to make deals with him after the election?



I think my favorite part of that was when Medvedev said "I will transmit that information to Vladimir" with an accent that sounded like Boris and Natasha.

Well, Romney decided that he wasn't going to sneak around about it and he wasn't going to pussy foot it, he put Russia on notice today:

The size of our Navy is at levels not seen since 1916. I will restore our Navy to the size needed to fulfill our missions by building 15 ships per year, including three submarines. I will implement effective missile defenses to protect against threats. And on this, there will be no flexibility with Vladimir Putin. And I will call on our NATO allies to keep the greatest military alliance in history strong by honoring their commitment to each devote 2 percent of their GDP to security spending. Today, only 3 of the 28 NATO nations meet this benchmark.

Emphasis mine.

You may recall, Obama sold out two of our strongest former SSR allies in Poland and the Czech republic by cutting off the missile defense program those great nations spent huge political capital agreeing to. That was a great insight into Obama's governing philosophy as was the above exchange with Medvedev. Obama was showed he was willing to cast aside true allies to placate fake ones and it sent a clear message to all of those who we rely on to take a second look at their relationship with us.

Four years ago, Obama was feted by the media after he gave a weak speech in Berlin. The speech was designed to show that Obama had foreign policy credibility. He's done everything in his power to squander what cred he accumulated there.

Reading the rest of that paragraph block quoted above, i like that he gets that we need to project power and the best way to do that is to have a big, strong navy. I also like that he's serious about making NATO nations honor their commitments. Britain has been strong as have others but the Bear is not happy playing second fiddle and a rejuvenated alliance is good for all concerned.

New Term, Same Old Putin

Mad Vlad Putin stole another election and he's paying those who went against him back in that old KGB way:

Russian riot police beat protesters with batons and hauled away dozens on Sunday after skirmishes broke out at a demonstration in Moscow against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency.

Vlad couldn't even wait until he got back into office, he sent his goons out to settle old scores as soon as he could:

 Opposition leaders Alexei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Udaltsov were among those detained at the rally, at which police tried to push back protesters who advanced towards them holding metal crowd barriers.

Putin still is an avid believer in Soviet-style government and, as the former head of KGB, knows how to deal with internal threats. Medvedev was a Putin puppet but now the chief thug is back and he's establishing his power base right off the bat.

But he's not only returning to the glory days of the USSR internally, he's steering foreign policy back to the bad old days. Putin gave The One the finger and said he's just too damn busy to attend the G-8 summit that Obama moved from Chicago to Camp David to suit Vlad.

Even more importantly, Putin threw down the gauntlet on our missile defense plans:

Whether or not the schedule change marked an intentional snub, the let-down comes less than a week after the nation's military chief of staff warned that Russia would consider preemptive strikes, if a dispute with the United States over a Europe-based missile defense system worsens.

Drew at AoSHQ has more on Obama's ideas of missile defense and here's a piece I wrote awhile back.

US Navy Headed Toward Black Sea

The US Navy is headed toward Georgia to offer aid to the Georgian people. It's dubbed a "humanitarian effort" but make no mistake about this, this is surely a show of strength that Moscow must take note of:

As we speak, the USS Kearsarge assault ship is sailing alone in Latin America, totally unescorted, on its own humanitarian mission. Captain Walter Towns said he feels "pretty secure." The Georgia flotilla, by contrast, is stacked with heavily-armed warships. The vanguard includes the Burke-class destroyer McFaul (pictured)and the armed Coast Guard cutter Dallas. (Another Dallas, a nuclear submarine, is also in the area.) Trailing behind is the command ship Mount Whitney with, reportedly, Polish and Canadian frigates as escorts. The naval aid effort isn't taking any chances.

And for good reason. Russia's Black Sea fleet dominated the waters off Georgia from the early days of the fighting, and now it's been announced that the sole Russian aircraft carrier, Kuznetsov, is headed to the eastern Mediterranean. In 1991 Kuznetsov illegally sneaked through Turkey's Bosporus Strait (see map here--ed.) that connects the Med to the Black Sea. "It will be interesting to see if Russia does it again," Galrahn writes over at Information Dissemination.

Ironically, the Kuznetsov was once named the Tblisi. Video here of the carrier.

It's a dangerous game to have warships in close proximity to one another as accidents can happen and tensions can be exacerbated. Here's a map of the Black Sea:



Note the only entrance is through the Sea of Marmara and past Istanbul. Tight quarters to be sure. US Navy and Coast Guard ships in a smallish sea with the Russians only carrier keeping station along the Georgian coast is a recipe for disaster. The Russians are also digging in along the Black Sea coast.

These are real issues that will have far-reaching consequences with regard to Russia's growing influence in the region. Putin has to be met with stiff American and international resistance to make him think twice the next time he makes a move. One must wonder how a President Obama (shudder) would handle a growing crisis like this and would he have the balls to send US warships to a hot area in defense of allies or would he instead meet with Putin or Medvedev with no pre-conditions?

Some good will come from this; US allies will see that we keep our word, plus we'll get to eyeball the Russian carrier and see exactly what technical abilities the rusting Russian navy still possesses.