The Russian Federation is the main cause of instability in the Black Sea region, experts at the US Institute for Foreign Policy Studies (FPRI) are confident, whose report was reviewed by RT.

According to representatives of the analytical center, today Russia uses its enhanced Black Sea potential not only to “destabilize” the region in military, political and economic terms, but also to “move borders, acquire territory and project power” in the Mediterranean region.

The author of the report writes that Russia's actions to strengthen military capabilities on the Crimean peninsula "allowed Moscow to prohibit hostile powers from accessing the Black Sea and project its own military force deep into the Mediterranean."

“As a result, in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Levant, Russia has become even stronger than the Soviet Union has ever been,” the FPRI said.

They are sure that it was precisely the actions of Russia that allegedly turned the Black Sea region into one of the most unstable regions of the world, accusing Moscow of conflicts in Transnistria (1991), South Ossetia and Abkhazia (2008) and Ukraine (2014). Despite the fact that both in the Moldavian-Transnistrian conflict and during the Georgian aggression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Russian side acted as a peacemaker, and the conflict between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass was transferred to the smoldering phase with the conclusion of the Minsk Agreements with the direct participation of Moscow , Berlin and Paris.

The desire to present Russia as the main threat to the West has become the dominant policy of the North Atlantic Alliance, said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during his speech at the Moscow Security Conference in April 2019. According to him, any practical NATO actions near the Russian borders lead to increased tension and require an adequate response.

  • Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
  • globallookpress.com
  • © MOD Russia / via Globallookpress.com

According to Alexei Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military-Political Studies at MGIMO, the accusations made against Russia that it destabilizes the Black Sea region are completely contrived.

“Russia is a Black Sea power and a significant part of the Black Sea and Azov coast belongs to Russia - it is obliged to protect and carry out protection measures. Therefore, Russia's accusations are far-fetched here, but what not only the American air force and naval forces do there, but also other forces of NATO countries, non-Black Sea states, for example, Denmark or Great Britain, raises a big question, ”the source said.

"The policy of force coercion"

However, FPRI experts are convinced of the need to combine the efforts of NATO members and partners of the military bloc to "deter" Russia in the Black Sea. It is, first of all, about the countries of the Black Sea region - Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine. According to American analysts, this is the only way to increase security in the region.

“Failing to recognize the common threat represented by Russia, the Black Sea countries do not cooperate and do not attract external support in order to deter Russian aggression. The key to stability in the Black Sea region is a common assessment of threats by NATO members and partners. Only by developing a common position and striving for joint containment can they increase security in the region, ”the report says.

However, experts interviewed by RT are convinced that a further increase in tension in the Black Sea region is not facilitated by Russian actions, but by an increase in NATO's military presence at Russian borders. According to Alexei Podberyozkin, such reports are issued, in particular, to justify the actions of the US authorities.

“The purpose of these reports is obvious - the United States is pursuing a policy of escalating coercive force. All states will try to draw in this concept as much as possible, not only Turkey, which formally enters into NATO and should participate in these events, Bulgaria, Romania, but also in the future I do not exclude, for example, Georgia and Ukraine. In order to somehow justify these actions, a military threat is needed. Although everyone understands perfectly well that the presence of the US Air Force - strategic US bombers in the Black Sea or the regular presence of destroyers equipped with extended-range cruise missiles - this, of course, is a threat to strategic stability, and the threat is provocative, ”explained Podberyozkin.

In turn, the director of the Institute for Contemporary State Development Dmitry Solonnikov, in an interview with RT, noted that the accusations against Russia are nothing more than “standard accents” that are placed by American analytical services.

“The destabilization in the region is not considered from the point of view of the coup in Ukraine, not from the point of view that the Ukrainian authorities are in a fever, and the number of crimes exceeds all conceivable indicators in all other neighboring countries of the Black Sea region. No, of course, the main problem is Russia, ”said the expert.

According to him, this behavior has become traditional for the Western establishment, so Russia will continue to be put forward as the main culprit of instability in the Black Sea region.

  • A pilot of a Russian military aircraft watches the US Navy destroyer Carney in the Black Sea participating in NATO’s Sea Breeze-2019 exercises
  • RIA News
  • © Press Service of the Ministry of Defense

Against this background, from October 21 to 27, 2019, the NATO Fall Storm 2019 exercises were held in the Romanian territorial and international waters of the Black Sea. Nine ships and about a thousand military sailors were involved in the maneuvers. Last summer, the traditional international Sea Breeze 2019 exercises, organized by the United States and Ukraine, also took place in the Black Sea.

The Russian side has repeatedly expressed concern about the increase in the number of NATO military exercises near Russian borders. In particular, the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Grigory Karasin, in February 2019 stated that Moscow considers the idea of ​​holding joint maneuvers of the United States and Ukraine in the Black Sea dangerous.

Interested in good neighborly relations

However, not all states of the Black Sea region seek to implement the recommendations of NATO, observing their interests. So, according to American experts, Russia has developed a “working relationship” with Turkey, which recognized its role in the Mediterranean at the cost of moving Ankara away from the North Atlantic Alliance.

In addition, according to the author of the FPRI report, the Kremlin “forms a comprehensive discourse of traditional values ​​that fuels proponents of conservatism in the countries of the Black Sea region and beyond.”

“The tactics are so successful that even in countries traditionally characterized by Russophobia, such as Romania, the public began to doubt Western values ​​and (now. - RT ) is leaning toward the East,” the FPRI says.

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan
  • Reuters
  • © Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin

According to Dmitry Solonnikov, in the current situation it is difficult for Western elites to admit that their actions have seriously affected the fact that liberal values ​​in many countries are “bursting at the seams”.

“Dreams that we will build a European society based on European values, and immediately live like Germany and France, these ideas are bankrupt in almost all countries. Romania is not unique in this part. It is difficult to admit that the United States itself and European leaders themselves are to blame for the fact that their ideals are more and more unpopular. Some external force, China, Russia, and so on will always be guilty, ”Solonnikov explained.

At the same time, both Russia and the countries of the Black Sea region are interested in stable good neighborly relations, added Alexey Podberyozkin.

“The fact that it is beneficial to maintain a relationship is so obvious that you do not have to convince it. This is understandable, because economic relations are maintained, they are stable and have been around for centuries, and security issues - we are in the same region and we simply depend on each other on military security issues, ”Podberyozkin explained.