While attention has been focused in recent weeks on the role of Russia and President Vladimir Putin in brokering a new ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the Russian president has made time for two crucial state missionsone to Cyprus and one to Egypt. What they both share in common is a border on the shore of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a strategic body of water whose importance in the escalating NATO confrontation with Russia cannot be underestimated. For more than 2000 years the Mediterranean Sea has been one of the worlds most strategic waters. It joins Middle East oil and gas with markets in the European Union. It joins Indian Ocean shipping, increasingly from China, India, South Korea and the rest of Asia to European markets and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Egyptian Suez Canal. It joins the vital Russian Black Sea Fleet naval base in Crimea to both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. In brief it connects Europe, Eurasia and Africa http://journal-neo.org/2015/03/29/putin-s-new-mediterranean-strategy/ When the Russia-Cyprus recent talks are analyzed in the context of the visit of President Putin to Cairo a fascinating strategic map begins to emerge, one that in no way pleases the neo-conservatives in Washington or their EU allies. We can expect Washington to work behind the scenes to heat frictions between Turkey, a NATO country, and Greek Orthodox Cyprus as well as upping pressures on al-Sisi.
Interesting development, it could be the moment when Russian Navy inverts the trend. The last Russian base in the area is the one in Syria and today it's almost logistic with the perspective to make it again a functional operative base for the Navy. If Moscow intends for real to activate a network of bases [adding to the Syrian one a base in Cyprus and a base in Egypt] it's evident that the Russian government has to be ready for a wide [and expensive] military effort in the next years. Let's wait and see ...
Nice script....well thought out and written. Please give my Kudos to the author. IF there was indeed a viable and useful "Black Sea Fleet" it could certainly benefit from Mediterranean Sea access (which it already has just like everyone else), unfortunately it is doubtful any of the ships could make it that far.
Russia began building up its Mediterranean fleet two years ago, and it was to be controlled by Sevastopol. The reason Washington moved fast to grab Ukraine, was so it could kick out the Russian naval headquarters in Crimea and destroy its ambitions in the Eastern Mediterranean. As for the territorial waters, it's not just the Cypriot and Egyptian waters, it's also the Greek waters. There is a small Greek island off the coast of Turkey that lies east of Rhodes. With this island Greece, Cyprus and Egypt control all the oil and gas rich waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. Without this island, there would be no connection between Cyprus and Egypt, and the waters in between would belong to Turkey.This is why Erdogan feels he has to break up the agreements between Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, and refuses to accept the Egyptian government. Erdogan has instructed the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow the Sisi government, and this is why Egypt has broken off diplomatic relations with Turkey. It all has to do with the continental shelves and the resources in the seas. The friction in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey has also become a lot worse...and a lot more dangerous. Turkey has built up a very formidable navy, and is now claiming seventeen Greek islands and is completely disregarding the Treaty of Lausanne. The only protection Cyprus, Egypt and Greece have from Turkey and its megalomaniac ruler...as well as from Washington's neo con sociopaths, is Russia.
The Russians have had a navy base at Tartus, Syria, since 1971. The Russians leveraged their presence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea very effectively when they made Obama reveal himself as a disorganized, blundering painter of "red lines" during the big poison gas episode in Syria back in 2013. But, there are many who post here who would have us all believe that the Russians have nothing in their navy but a clutter of old, rusting relics from the Soviet Union days. I'm still waiting for them to explain the existence of THESE things, given that they think Russians have barely advanced beyond the days of sails and steam.... http://rt.com/news/russia-moskva-cruiser-mediterranean-720/ http://rt.com/news/missile-cruiser-varyag-mediterranean-127/ Oh, wait... these are just paste-up, pretend-like Russian navy vessels, taped to floating row boats... right...?
