Putin’s show of strength to Biden: Russian forces hunt ‘enemy’ submarine in largest naval exercises in the Pacific since the end of the Cold War before meeting with US President next week
- US President Joe Biden will meet with Putin for talks in Geneva on Wednesday
- Russian navy put on a show of force, conducting mass drills in the Pacific Ocean
- Exercise involved 20 ships, submarines, support vessels, and 20 fighter planes
- Biden has promised ‘robust and meaningful’ reaction to Russia’s ‘harmful acts’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on a show of force with the largest naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean since the end of the Cold War ahead of a meeting with the US President next week.
At least 20 ships, submarines, and support vessels, flanked by 20 fighter jets, took part in the large-scale war games.
Biden last week warned there would be ‘robust and meaningful’ consequences for Russia’s ‘harmful activities’ as he started his first international tour as president with the G7 summit. Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has put on a show of force with the largest naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean since the Cold War
At least 20 ships, submarines, and support vessels took part in the large-scale war games
The naval exercise, which also involves 20 fighter jets, came ahead of a meeting between Putin and Biden later this week
US President Joe Biden (left) warned Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) that ‘harmful activities’ would be met with ‘robust and meaningful consequences’
Footage of the mass exercise shows the Russians tracking and ‘driving out’ a mock enemy submarine.
‘During the exercise, the crews of the Pacific Fleet’s warships fired from the automatic naval gun mount AK-630 and the universal naval artillery A-190,’ a Moscow defence ministry statement said.
The search and tracking of the mock enemy’s submarines were carried out by the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev equipped with guided-missile weapons, the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov and three corvettes, according to Sputnik.
Former chief of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, said: ‘In the post-Soviet period, there have been no comparable exercises involving such a large number of forces.’
Rear Admiral Konstantin Kabantsov termed the drills ‘unique’ due to the large area of the Pacific Ocean where they are taking place and added that ‘such exercises have not been conducted… in the recent history of the Russian fleet.’
The Russian navy’s Pacific Ocean drills included 20 warships, including vessels equipped with helicopters
Russian naval personnel carried out a submarine tracking exercise as part of the drills held in the Pacific Ocean
The search and tracking of the mock enemy’s submarines were carried out by the large anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleev equipped with guided-missile weapons, the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov and three corvettes
Footage of the mass exercise shows the Russians tracking and ‘driving out’ a mock enemy submarine
Former chief of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko, said there had been no comparable exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union
Earlier, Moscow also claimed it had intercepted a US reconnaissance plane on its Pacific coast, preventing it from approaching the Russian state border.
Video from the cockpit of a Su-35 fighter showed the American RC-135 spy plane, according to reports.
Biden and Putin are set to meet at an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva later this week for a summit. It’s their first face-to-face meeting since Biden became president.
Biden has already warned Putin over ‘harmful activities’, saying as he arrived for the G7 summit that: ‘The United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to face the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future…
‘Our alliances weren’t built by coercion or maintained by threats, they’re grounded on democratic ideals and shared visions for future and where every voice matters.’
The sit down comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow, with Biden making it clear he will take a tougher stance on Russian aggression than his predecessor in the Oval Office, Donald Trump.
Biden has declined to hold a press conference with Putin following the talks, as is traditional when two world leaders meet.
It was an indication both of the administration’s reluctance to grant Putin yet another prominent platform in addition to the summit itself – as well as a reluctance on the part of the White House to put Biden in an unscripted situation that could go off the rails.
Biden meeting with Putin in March 2011 when he was vice president
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