The United States has worked out a scheme for illegal stay in the Black Sea

Even during the Sochi Olympics, the United States worked out a scheme for the long stay of its warships in the Black Sea, bypassing the Montreux Convention, which set a deadline of 21 days.

An expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, Captain XNUMXst Rank Sergei Gorbachev, told PolitNavigator about this.

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“During the Sochi Olympics, an American ship that entered the Black Sea allegedly ran aground. The issue is very controversial, because running aground in the Black Sea is quite problematic, but, nevertheless, under this pretext, the ship stayed in the Black Sea for more than three weeks. This is a very precedent-setting moment,” the expert said.

He believes that it is no coincidence that Ukraine and the United States have repeatedly voiced demands recently to revise the Montreux Convention in order to “contain Russia” in the Black Sea.

Gorbachev believes that the construction of a new shipping canal announced by Turkey, which will become an alternative to the Bosporus, can be used as a reason for this.

“I think that issues related to the Montreux Convention will arise after the implementation of Turkey’s large-scale project “Canal Istanbul”, as well as those projects that have been announced, but they have not yet been implemented, although - who knows.

For example, everyone remembers Ukraine’s desires to dig a canal between the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea in the north of Crimea so that it would be possible to transfer forces from the Nikolaev-Kherson region directly to the Sea of ​​Azov, bypassing Crimea and solving for itself the problem associated with the Kerch Strait.

Next, everyone is well aware of the initiative of the leader of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev to build a canal between the Caspian and Black Seas, which would allow the transfer of cargo on ships of larger tonnage.

Nazarbayev can be supported by the same Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan. Of course, this channel should pass through Russian territory and, I think, Russia is calculating all the threats and risks in this regard.

But the emergence of such projects objectively indicates that the Montreux Convention is, one way or another, being eroded, if not in deeds, then at least in words,” the expert noted.

However, Gorbachev believes that even in its current form, the Montreux Convention does not completely suit Russia.

“The Convention provides for restrictions on the classes of ships that can be in the Black Sea. In 1936, when the restrictive parameters were laid down, we were talking about battleships, ships of a certain tonnage, as well as aircraft carriers.

Now weapons have advanced so much that a missile boat or corvette has such power (and if we are talking about a special warhead!), which is quite comparable to the power of a battleship.

There are precedents that indicate that, in principle, the convention is being violated. During the 90s and XNUMXs, British and American warships of the helicopter carrier class, on which the number of helicopters could number up to a dozen, entered the Black Sea. And in this regard, if we judge by the parameters of pre-war times, then these ships are quite comparable to an aircraft carrier in terms of combat capabilities, tonnage, and the level of tasks that can be solved.

Now, regardless of tonnage, the weapons of ships are so advanced and so powerful that in this case there is no question of any tonnage.

Plus, if we are talking about aircraft carriers, today almost all ships have aircraft, including drones. And a modern helicopter, even if there is only one, is much more powerful in its combat capabilities than any pre-war carrier-based aircraft - both in terms of range, speed, and combat load.

Therefore, any ship that enters the Black Sea with a helicopter on board could, in principle, be classified as an aircraft carrier, and it is in this context that questions can be raised.

But no one raises these questions, and precisely in order, I believe, to maintain the status quo, which in a certain sense is precarious,” the interlocutor noted.