Ein Schachzug auf hoher See demütigt Putin

Simon Shuster: “Over the past two weeks, Russian authorities tried hard to protect an oil tanker that the Americans wanted to seize. On Christmas Eve, Moscow permitted the ship to fly the Russian tricolor, a symbolic warning for U.S. forces to keep their distance. The Russian foreign ministry then issued a demand for the Americans to leave the ship alone, and the Russian navy provided an escort, which reportedly included a submarine. None of it did any good.

“Yesterday, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated Orthodox Christmas on a military base near Moscow, U.S. troops descended from helicopters onto the deck of the tanker, dealing the Kremlin a humiliation such as it has seldom faced on the high seas. Some Russian commentators called the raid an act of war, though the official response from Moscow sounded a lot more cautious: The foreign ministry urged the United States to respect the rights of the Russian citizens on board and to ‘put no obstacles for their soonest return to the motherland.’

“The standoff, reminiscent of the tensest moments of the Cold War, deepened the dilemma Putin faces. The Trump administration kicked off the year with a series of belligerent moves, first sending troops into Caracas to arrest Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, then threatening a takeover of Greenland. Putin kept silent as the U.S. brought Maduro, his ally, to New York to face charges of trafficking drugs. While the Russian foreign ministry called on the U.S. to avoid ‘any further escalation,’ some analysts speculated that the U.S. moves against Venezuela might offer benefits for Putin, heralding an era of great-power politics in which the U.S., Russia, and China carve up the world into their spheres of influence. But the American seizure of the tanker, known as the Marinera, was a reminder that between Moscow and Washington, a vast power differential remains.”

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