US Courting Trouble by Intruding into the Black Sea

By: Kayhan Int’l 

The US it seems has become so accustomed to being kicked around that it always looks for new spots to meddle and get thrashed to the embarrassment of the American public which has been burdened with humiliation after humiliation.

Pounded in the Persian Gulf, bloodied in Syria and Iraq, and outwitted in the South China Sea, it is now scheming to intrude into the Black Sea to court more trouble, especially since Russia is the dominant power determined to safeguard its strategic interests.

Western European powers ought to be cautious against venturing into the crisis created by Ukraine where an unpopular regime with the support of the US is suppressing the Ukrainian people and picking up an unnecessary fight with Russia.

It is worth noting that Crimea is essential to Russia both strategically and economically, while it is a far-fetched to expect Turkey be dragged into the US conflict with Russia with which Ankara has developed vital trade and political relations. 

According to observers, a power struggle in the Black Sea Moscow and Washington, with NATO on the US side, might turn out to be Great Game of the 21st century.

The chessboard from Syria to the Persian Gulf, Turkey and Crimea, has become complicated because of outside intervention that threatens to set fire to the whole region. 

In the mythology of ancient Greece the Black Sea was depicted as the dividing line between the known and the unknown worlds, where to the east lived the Iranian Scythians, renowned for their archery, horsemanship, and warlike nature.

The Greeks built up the myths of Jason and the Argonauts travelling to the farther shore of Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) to steal the Golden Fleece from Colchis (in present day Georgia).

Historical developments are something else. With the conversion to Islam of the Mongol Golden Horde, the Black Sea soon became a Tartar Lake and then Ottoman Turkish Lake.
When an expansionist Czarist Russia reached the shores of the Black Sea the balance of power changed. First Russia and then the Soviet Union became active in building trade routes through the strategic straits of Kerch in Crimea, the Dardanelles, and the Bosporus.

Now with post-Soviet Russia calling the shots and Crimea back under Moscow’s rule, the region has become a formidable fortress incorporating S-400 and Iskander-M missiles – capable of ensuring total Russian primacy all across the Black Sea.

Next year the Black Sea fleet will be upgraded with an array of anti-ship missiles; protected by S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems; and supported by a new "permanent deployment” of Sukhoi SU-27s and SU-30s.

Now compare the re-acquisition of Crimea by Russia, without firing a shot and validated by a democratic referendum, to the US occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Under the circumstance, it will be up to a new government in Kiev after the upcoming March elections to realize that any provocation designed to drag NATO into a Kerch Strait entanglement is doomed to failure.