HAVANA, Cuba—Three Russian Naval ships and a nuclear-powered submarine passed by the Florida coast on Tuesday, June 11, on their way to port in Cuba, where they plan to conduct “military exercises” in the Caribbean, according to maritime and aerial tracking data. The fleet arrived in Havana, Cuba, early Wednesday morning.
A U.S. official told reporters the vessels do not appear to be threatening but the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as Canada, are keeping a close eye none-the-less. The U.S. does not expect the Russians have nuclear weapons onboard, however they are equipped with long-range missiles, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface-to-surface and anti-surface-to-air missiles.
This marks the largest display of force with its former allies just 90-miles from the coast of Florida amidst increasing tensions due to the U.S. siding with Ukraine throughout Russia’s ongoing military operation, and just weeks after United States President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. supplied weapons to strike inside Russian territory directly.
CNN reported Wednesday that a Russian Admiral Gorshkav class frigate fired a 21-gun salute as it entered the harbor which was answered by the Cubans firing cannons from an 18th century fort built by the Spanish Empire to guard the port.
Footage of the Russian Northern Fleet ship group arriving off the coast of Cuba was published by the Russian Defense Ministry. In addition to the nuclear submarine Kazan, it includes the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the sea tanker Akademik Pashin and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker.… pic.twitter.com/gffIibOCtu
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) June 12, 2024
Cuba was a key communist ally to the former Soviet Union—currently Russian Federation—during the Cold War, briefly holding nuclear missiles for the communist country during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the deployment of nuclear missiles to the Caribbean island in response to the U.S. placing nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, and a U.S.-led failed invasion of Cuba—known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion—a year earlier.
The Pentagon has been monitoring the Russian ships since they began conducting exercises in the Atlantic on their way to the Caribbean, shadowing them with the USS Truxtun, the USS Donald Cook, and the Coast Guard vessel the USCGC Stone, CNN reported.
Additionally, the U.S. military has deployed a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance plane to monitor its activities from the sky. Still, the Russians have strictly remained in international waters as of now.
Cuba released in a statement last week that the Russian stopover does not indicate a threat to the region and that such visits are common. Cuba has hosted Russian warships every year between 2013 and 2020.
Last month Russian President Vladamir Putin began including tactical nuclear weapon deployments in his troop’s military drills as a response to, what he called, “threats” spouting from the West.
Putin has been threatening the use of nuclear weapons since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but this is the first time he has taken action indicating that he may be serious.
It should be noted that “tactical nuclear weapons,” or non-strategic, differ from strategic nuclear weapons in that they can be used in battlefield situations and carry less power than strategic nuclear weapons which were the bombs dropped on Japan during the Second World War.
According to Statista, Russia spent the third most money of any nation on nuclear weapons in 2022 at $10 billion.
Russian Nationals arrested in three U.S. cities under suspicion of terrorism
Just a day before the Russian fleet ported in Havana, six Russian Nationalists were arrested in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles for having potential ties to ISIS.
“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities,” the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a statement.
“The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security.”
An anonymous ICE officials told reporters working for the New York Post the Nationalists were arrested after the FBI raised an alarm they were orchestrating a “Boston Marathon bombing-type attack,” that killed three and injured almost 300 others.
The individuals from Tajikistan reportedly entered the U.S. via the southern border last year and this year, ABC news reported. At the time of their entry, no national security flags were raised.
The suspects have since been detained and efforts are underway to deport them back to their home country. Authorities currently lack enough evidence to warrant terrorism charges against them.
Just last week Attorney General Merrick Garland testified in front the House Judiciary Committee he was “worried about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the country,” and the “threat has gone up enormously.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed with Attorney General Garland telling the U.S. Senate committee that the country has seen the threat of foreign terrorists rise since the Hamas attack on Israel last October, adding the FBI has disrupted multiple attempted terrorist attacks on U.S. cities since.
At least 60 percent of all religious-inspired hate crimes have been targeting Jewish Americans, Wray added— a staggering number considering Jewish Americans only make up about 2% of the U.S. population.
