Retired U.S. Navy Captain Chuck Nash says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using the recent provocation in the Baltic Sea and other incidents to prove the United States will not stand up to aggression and won’t do anything to stop Russia’s efforts to gobble up its former republics.
Nash, who served 25 years in uniform as a U.S. Naval aviator, was responding to reports that Russian jets repeatedly buzzed the U.S.S. Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea more than 30 times and even simulated attack maneuvers.
He says Putin’s calculation is clear.
“Putin is trying to take down NATO without firing a shot. His message to NATO is clear. His message to the Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania is very clear. And that is, ‘The United States will not react, even when their nose is rubbed in it. So what makes you think they’re going to come to your defense if shooting starts or if we really start posturing heavily,'” said Nash.
“That message has been transmitted and that message, trust me, has been received,” said Nash.
Nash says Putin views the U.S. as weak and has ever since Obama began his presidency by bowing to multiple heads of states in other countries. He says Obama further proved Putin right by not enforcing the red line in Syria and doing nothing in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine.
He says Putin is licking his chops over what the final nine months of Obama’s time in office may let him get away with.
“He has no idea who’s coming in in January, but he knows who he’s got right now and he’s going to exploit that. My concern is that something really significant is going to happen in the nine months. His strategic goal is to take down NATO and to rebuild imperial Russia,” said Nash.
Nash expects Russia to call the West’s bluff on the most important component of the NATO alliance.
“To take down NATO, all he’s got to do is get somebody to try to invoke Article 5, which is the mutual defense provision of the NATO treaty. All of a sudden, he’s going to see who in NATO stands up to that Article 5 call. If countries balk, NATO is done,” warned Nash.
Where could this major flashpoint occur in the next nine months? Nash suspects it will be along the Baltic coast, namely a small piece of Russian land known as the Kaliningrad Oblast. It strategically borders Belarus and Poland and is south of the Baltic States.
“He could use an incident there to where he says it’s being threatened. He makes a move and puts troops up against the borders of some of the Baltic States and essentially tries to precipitate a reaction by those countries whereby he can do what he did in Ukraine,” said said Nash.
Nash says Putin got his message across to the Baltic States through the buzzing of the U.S.S. Cook but once again elicited a very weak response from the Obama administration. Having flown these sorts of missions in the vicinity of Soviet and Russian ships during his time in the service, Nash says pilots are required to fly parallel to the ships, stay a minimum of 1,000 feet above the water and give 1,500 feet of space on the side. The Russian planes came as close as 30 feet and zoomed perpendicular across the vessel.
Furthermore, the U.S.S. Cook was clearly in international waters and the Russian pilots did not return messages sent by the ship. Nash also points out that Russia conducted similar harassment of the U.S.S. Cook in the Black Sea not long ago.
The main response came in the form of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest calmly reciting the protocol that should have been followed by Russian pilots.
“It is entirely inconsistent with the professional norms of militaries operating in proximity to each other in international waters and international airspace. Any peacetime military activity must be consistent with international law and conducted with due regard for the rights of other nations and the safety of other aircraft and other vessels,” said Earnest on Wednesday.
Nash is unimpressed.
“What he was saying was, ‘This is the way things should be.’ Well Josh, they’re not. What are you and the administration going to do about it? If you continue to roll over, Putin is going to take more and more,” said Nash.
So what would have been the proper response? Nash immediately explained what he believes the U.S. should do.
“The answer is you flood the zone. You want to play games? Fine. You don’t like ships in the Baltic? Get over it. We’re going to flood the zone. Every ship leaving Norfolk that’s headed east is going to come through the Baltics before it goes through the Straits of Gibraltar,” said Nash.
“We’re going to set up multinational, unilateral, and bilateral exercises with the countries in the Baltics. Get used to seeing American ships. We’re going to be here and they’re not going to be oilers. They’re going to be combatants,” he said.
