Although the damage caused by Russia to the United States is not great, it is painful for Washington. Recently, a Russian ocean-going fleet, including nuclear submarines, sailed from its base in Russia thousands of miles away to the waters of Latin America. While visiting Cuba and Venezuela and holding joint military exercises with the Cuban Navy, the Russian naval fleet will also use the above two countries as supply bases and conduct more than three months of training activities in the region.

 

Obviously, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia's move is a stab in the back for the United States. Although the United States has repeatedly stated that the Russian naval fleet "will not pose a threat to American security", when the Russian naval ships approached its coastline about 30 miles away, the U.S. Navy was on high alert. According to a report by Shangguan News, some U.S. media reported that when the fleet sent by Moscow approached Florida, the U.S. Navy sent ships and fighter jets to track and monitor it. According to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although the Russian Navy's fleet was accompanied by nuclear submarines, it "did not carry nuclear weapons." However, some Russian media later claimed that although the fleet did not have nuclear weapons, it had the ability to launch tactical nuclear weapons and carried "Zircon" hypersonic anti-ship missiles, which made the United States feel like it was facing a great enemy. Because the U.S. military did not know what the Russian Navy fleet would do next, it had to send a large number of warships. Coast guard ships and aircraft closely monitored it.

In fact, from a military perspective, Russia sending this fleet to operate close to the US coastline is just like US warships operating close to the Russian coastline in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea. It is a deterrent or provocation. It will not pose any substantial security threat to the opponent. It is just to suppress the opponent in momentum and is conducive to public opinion propaganda. In other words, it is not very harmful, but extremely humiliating.

 

The United States is an old hand at "freedom of navigation" in other people's coastal waters. It should have been reasonable to remain calm about Russia's move, but they actually made such a big move to dispatch a large number of naval and air forces to respond, and even asked the Canadian Navy to help. This is completely different from the United States' previous attitude in response to Russian bombers cruising in the surrounding airspace. Obviously, the United States made such a big move to respond to just four Russian ships, not because they would launch hypersonic missiles at the United States, but because it would make the United States' backyard more "rebellious."

Russia's deployment of a naval fleet to Latin America is not only a military move, but also a political move. At the same time as the Russian naval fleet was deployed in Latin American waters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Sergei Hill recently signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in resisting unilateral coercive measures at the BRICS meeting in Kazan, Russia.

 

Russia not only signed an anti-hegemony memorandum with Venezuela, but also will hold joint military exercises with the navies of the two countries. Obviously, this series of actions by Russia not only strengthens the confidence of Cuba and Venezuela, two anti-American countries, to confront the United States, but also, in a sense, sows the seeds of anti-Americanism in the backyard of the United States, making the countries in the region more confident to say "no" to the United States.  

It is not difficult to understand why the United States was so frightened by the four Russian Navy ships, because Russia's way of countering the United States in retaliation for the United States' support for Ukraine is gradually breaking the bottom line. Obviously, the influence of the United States in Latin America has been declining, and now Russia has made such a fuss, coupled with the expanding diplomatic and economic influence of other countries in the region, if things continue like this, Latin America, the "backyard" of the United States, may be transformed by Russia into an anti-US "bridgehead".