News / Russia

Russia ‘to respond to US deployment of destroyer to Black Sea’

Friday, 10 June 2016 9:18 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 10 June 2016 9:34 AM ]

US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter sails through the Bosporus Strait on its way to the Black Sea, June 6, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Russia says it will respond to a recent move by the US military to deploy a destroyer, upgraded with a new missile system, to the Black Sea near Russian borders.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Moscow will respond to the June 6 entry of the USS Porter into the Black Sea.

The US had declared that the mission was “routine” and was meant to promote “peace and stability.”

The vessel, however, has recently been equipped with a new missile system in what the US Navy said at the time was aimed at countering a “Russian threat.”

The Russian ministry did not specify how it would respond to the deployment to the Black Sea, which is bounded by Russia and a number of other countries.

Citing freedom of navigation, the US has repeatedly deployed military vessels to areas far from US mainland. Such deployments often stir up regional tensions.

Russia has also had rocky relations with the US-led NATO over what is perceived as the Western military alliance’s expansion eastward toward Russian borders.

British paratroopers jump from a C-130 Hercules plane during the NATO exercises near Torun, Poland, June 7, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

NATO recently launched its biggest-ever joint exercises in Poland — to the west of Russia, a move which was quickly denounced by Russian authorities. NATO also recently launched a missile system installed in European countries, further angering Russia.

NATO claims such military activities are not targeted at Russia, but Moscow has long complained that the military alliance was making inroads into Russian spheres of influence in Eastern Europe.

Relations between Russia and the West have been especially cold since early 2014, when the then-Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula voted in a referendum to join the Russian Federation.

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