The chief of naval operations said Monday that recent incidents in the Baltic show that Russia is trying to “send a signal,” but that the Kremlin is not seeking to provoke an incident with the U.S.
“I think it’s pretty clear they’re trying to let us know that they see that we’re up there in the Baltic and we’ll continue to try and see where this levels out,” Adm. John Richardson told reporters at the Pentagon.
In mid-April, a Russian warplane flew within 30 feet of the U.S. Navy destroyer Donald Cook, conducting simulated attacks. Days later, a Russian fighter jet buzzed an Air Force reconnaissance plane in a move deemed “unsafe and unprofessional” by the U.S. military.
Last week, a Russian fighter jet barrel rolled over a reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea in the third incident of the month.
“My hope is that we can stop this sort of activity. It just increases the chance for some kind of tactical miscalculation and when those happen, we’ll do everything we can — if this should happen, do everything we can to keep that in perspective and prevent any kind of escalation,” Richardson said.
“It just sort of raises the overall tension in the region, so we’ll look for sort of a normalization there,” he continued.
The U.S. and Russia signed an agreement in 1972 that would prevent incidents on and over the high seas. Experts agreed that last month’s incidents violated the deal, but said there’s not much the U.S. can do to enforce the “rules-of-the-road”-type agreement.
Richardson said the deal was a “pretty good agreement to abide by, so we’ll continue to advocate for that.”
Following the incidents, the White House promised that the dangerous buzzes would “come with a cost.”
