A permanent NATO military presence in the Black Sea would be destabilizing and undermine security in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry official Andrey Kelin said.
The diplomat added that NATO has never deployed a permanent force in the region, except for occasional entries of NATO’s warships in the Black Sea.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is bolstering its presence in the Black Sea. He added that NATO military chiefs discussed creating a Romanian brigade as part of the multinational South-Eastern Brigade.
"We’re living at a time when many previous international agreements are being revised. So, it would be no surprise if someday the United States refuses to observe the Montreux Convention," Ivan Konovalov, head of the Center of Strategic Environment, told Svobodnaya Pressa.
At the same time, the NATO bureaucracy has tools to bypass restrictions postulated in previous agreements. For example, according to the agreements between Moscow and the alliance, NATO cannot deploy permanent forces to Eastern Europe. However, NATO worked out the so-called rotation scheme – personnel changes but military equipment and infrastructure stay the same.
Currently, NATO seems to be working on a similar scheme for the Black Sea, Konovalov suggested.
The US wants to use NATO to restrain Russia in the Baltic region and in the Black Sea, in a bid to decrease Russia’s naval capabilities. Moscow has built a powerful military force in the Arctic, so Washington will try to impose on Russia its own rules of the game in the Arctic, but it is unlikely to succeed, he said.
As for the Black Sea, NATO’s presence could be a headache for Russia, he assumed. For instance, the US may implement Romania’s imitative of a united NATO flotilla, involving NATO regional members.
Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, noted that NATO’s increased presence in the Black Sea is part of an overall NATO trend to bolster military presence along Russian borders, including in the Barents and Okhotsk Sea.
In addition, Turkey is building up its naval forces in the Black Sea, he added.
"Russia would adequately strengthen its naval capability in response to NATO maneuvers. Moscow should send a signal to Washington and London that it is ready for an adequate response to any provocative actions," he said.