For days, news reports have noted the presence of a Russian naval ship lurking in international waters off the East Coast of the United States. For some critics of President Donald J. Trump, the vessel has become a symbol of the administration’s ties with Russia.
Trump himself referred to the ship at a marathon news conference on Thursday, saying his critics probably think “the greatest thing I could do is shoot that ship that’s 30 miles offshore right out of the water. Everyone in this country’s going to say, ‘Oh, it’s so great.’ That’s not great. That’s not great.”
A Coast Guard official on Thursday said the presence of the intelligence ship, called the Viktor Leonov, so close to American shores is not unprecedented, and is not a cause for alarm.
The vessel has been traveling along the Eastern Seaboard and was spotted near the states of Connecticut, Virginia and Delaware. Capt. Andrew Tucci, who oversees Long Island Sound and coastal Connecticut, said the Coast Guard knew the Russian ship had been traveling from the Caribbean “for some time.”
“This vessel was transiting all up the Eastern Seaboard, and the Coast Guard and other military and federal government agencies are aware,” Tucci said.
By the time the public learned of it on Wednesday, it had started to move in the direction of a submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, staying at least 30 miles offshore.
Tucci said that his region is traversed mostly by commercial fishing vessels and oceangoing freight ships, but that the Coast Guard had no reason to contact the Russian ship.
Asked how often a foreign military ship passes off the US coast, he said, “A couple times a year.”
“It may not be a daily occurrence, but it is not unusual,” he said of the appearance of the Russian vessel. “This vessel was in international waters for the entirety of a transit, so it is not a violation of American sovereignty in any way,” Tucci said.
“And yes, Russian vessels transit through international waters,” he added, “and certainly American vessels transit through international waters, and it is a legitimate and lawful activity that doesn’t raise any particular concerns.”
United States territory extends 12 miles out to sea.
While the ship was being treated publicly as little more than a maritime curiosity, its presence became entangled in the political discourse. That was especially true after Michael T. Flynn’s resignation this week as national security adviser amid a scandal over his contact with a Russian diplomat.
Trump, who spent part of the news conference denouncing leaks to the press, later used the ship as an example of a national security matter that he would not discuss with journalists.
“So when you ask me what am I going to do with a ship, the Russian ship as an example, I’m not going to tell you,” he said. “But, hopefully, I won’t have to do anything, but I’m not going to tell you.”
Earlier in the week, some had seized on the Russian ship as a symbol. Rep. Joe Courtney, District of Connecticut, a member of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said on Wednesday on the House floor and in a published statement that the presence of the Russian “spy ship” about 30 miles from the Groton submarine base was one of several “destabilizing” actions by Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
“This unacceptable, aggressive action, combined with the buzzing of US Navy ships in the Black Sea yesterday, are clearly testing the resolve of a new administration,” Courtney said in the statement on his web site. “While I have total confidence in our Navy’s vigilant, responsible readiness, the White House needs to move past their seeming infatuation with Putin and treat him like the serious threat to global peace and security that he has been for the last five years.”
In Congress, the representative said the appearance of the ship fit into a Russian pattern of aggression, including the recent deployment of a new cruise missile that US officials say violated a landmark arms control treaty.
“This administration needs to wake up and recognize that and move on to a bipartisan effort to respond to this threat,” Courtney said. “And they can do that by again disclosing all of the background regarding Geneneral Flynn’s interactions with the Russian government, because it is part and parcel of all those incidents which I listed in terms of aggressive actions that are happening in real time as we are here in Washington, D.C., today.”
Though Rep. Jim Himes, District of Connecticut, said in a statement on Wednesday the ship did “not present a direct threat to our physical safety”, he added that its appearance was troubling, however, viewed in conjunction with the stories of “Russian ties and interference in the Trump administration and the recent deployment of a Russian cruise missile in apparent violation of international agreements.”
He added, “In my opinion, Russia is making a show of strength and pushing established boundaries and norms to gauge the reaction of a new administration in disarray.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, District of Connecticut, said that while the appearance of the Russian ship was not “wholly unprecedented,” it showed the Trump administration had given Russia the green light to “flex his muscles”.
For years, the 300-foot ship, which has equipment monitoring sonar and communications and carries defensive weaponry, has been patrolling near naval installations on the East Coast and was spotted two years ago near the Navy’s Trident ballistic missile submarine base in Kings Bay, Georgia, The Hartford Courant newspaper reported.
“It’s been going on for years,” said Jeff Walsh, a retired Navy senior chief, who served 22 years aboard attack submarines and who works at Electric Boat in Groton. Walsh was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the attention roused by the ship was amusing to people who understand the context.
“It’s going to keep going on until everyone wants to play nice.”
The Associated Press quoted an unnamed military official as saying the ship had made a port call in Cuba previously and was monitored off Delaware’s coast.
It was not immediately clear how long the Russian ship had remained off the Connecticut coast. Tucci said he did not have information about the location of the Russian ship on Thursday.
“It came up here, it turned around and left, and to my knowledge the last briefing I got, it was headed back down,” he said.
Image credits: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times