(NewsNation) — The sight of Russian warships conducting drills just 100 miles off the Florida coast is provocative but not a direct threat, according to a former U.S. general, even as tensions escalate between Washington and Moscow over the Ukraine war.
Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Newton said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that the deployment of the Russian fleet near Havana, Cuba, including a nuclear-powered submarine carrying hypersonic missiles, shows President Vladimir Putin can operate in America’s backyard while the U.S. aids Ukraine.
“Putin is telling President (Joe) Biden and the rest of the free world, frankly, that he can operate in the backyard of the United States,” Newton said.
The Pentagon says it is monitoring the Russian naval exercises but does not see them as a threat. Still, Newton said the move ups the ante as U.S.-Russia relations grow more strained following Biden’s approval to let Ukraine strike inside Russia with American weapons.
“This is, at best, provocative,” Newton said. “The tensions are rising, especially with President Biden’s recent announcement.”
Russia is a longtime ally of Venezuela and Cuba, and its warships and aircraft have periodically made forays into the Caribbean.
But this mission comes less than two weeks after Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike inside Russia to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The general said Russia sees the drills near allies Cuba and Venezuela as an assertion of its freedom of navigation and influence in Latin America dating to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Meanwhile, Newton was skeptical of new G7 sanctions aiming to choke off China’s microchip and technology supplies to Russia for its weapons production.
“Sanctions are very difficult,” he said. “It’s good to hear that the sanctions are moving forward. It’ll be another (matter) whether or not they’re effective.”