Navy exercises of Bulgaria, Romania and USA in Black Sea are show of force to Russia, experts say

The NATO is grouping its troops around Ukraine to support the invasion of the Ukrainian Army into the Crimea after the referendum scheduled for March 16, said Konstantin Sivkov, the vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems. Anatoly Tsyganok, the head of the Centre for Military Forecasting, believes that the military exercises, now held in the Black Sea, are a demonstration of force and weapons. According to Alexander Perendjiev, a military analyst, the arrival of the US Navy destroyer at the Black Sea did not violate any international treaties.

On March 9, the US Navy aircraft carrier "George Bush" and the missile cruiser "Philippine Sea" arrived in the Turkish port of Antalya to "scale up efforts to ensure maritime safety with Turkish partners," said the press service of the US Navy.

On March 11, in the Black Sea, to the southeast of the Romanian city of Constanța, outside the Rumanian territorial waters, the exercises of the naval forces of Bulgaria, Romania and the United States were launched. They had been planned back in 2013 and have no relation to the events in Ukraine, the Bulgarian defence ministry has noted.

The ships that could potentially take part in a military conflict are "a serious weapon," Colonel Anatoly Tsyganok has stressed. In his opinion, the US military policy and that of their partners will be defined after the March 16 Crimean referendum.