VLADIMIR Putin’s warships and nuclear submarine are passing just 25 miles from the United States in a chilling echo of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Footage has emerged of the tyrant's fleet engaging in war games in the Atlantic just days after it was announced that Russian warships would be sent to the Caribbean for military drills.
Putin's most modern frigate Admiral Gorshkov, a hypersonic missile carrier, is accompanying nuclear submarine Kazan and two other naval vessels right on President Joe Biden's doorstep.
The flotilla - due in Havana, Cuba's capital, tomorrow - is seen as sabre rattling by the Russian dictator at a time of deep tension over his war against Ukraine.
The flotilla’s route has taken it between Florida and Grand Bahama island, and it is known to be under close monitoring by the US armed forces.
A Boeing P-8 Poseidon US maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft was highlighted by Open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts monitoring an area of sea roughly equidistant between the US and Bahamas, likely the location of Putin's warships.
Russian pro-war Telegram channels have boasted that nuclear submarine Kazan has "guided missile weapons" on board as it passes close to the American coastline.
Cuban officials denied the Russian vessels are carrying nuclear missiles but Putin recently threatened to supply his most potent weapons to countries or regions close to his leading NATO enemies.
The tyrant sees it as a tit-for-tat for the US, Britain and France supplying Ukraine with missiles for use on his territory.
Putin suggested that Moscow could take “asymmetrical steps” elsewhere in the world in response to Biden's call to allow Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike Russia.
Despite this, both the Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan are normally key vessels in Putin’s nuclear strike force.
Russia has not stated what firepower is being carried by his flotilla.
The other two Russian vessels are the tanker Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolay Chiker.
During war-games in the Atlantic, the Admiral Gorshkov “defended Northern Fleet ships from air raids and anti-ship missiles of the conditional enemy”.
These exercises were conducted with the help of computer simulation, said the Russian defence ministry.
Mock targets were hit with the Poliment-Redut SAM system, A-192M shipboard artillery system and Palash anti-aircraft system.
Russia and Cuba - one of America's long-sworn enemies - previously announced Putin's vessels would be in Cuban waters from June 12 to 17.
The ships are also expected to make port calls in Venezuela.
Senior Biden administration officials, however, believe the Russian warships, as well as aircraft that are expected to arrive for the naval exercise, will likely remain in the region through the summer.
They recently said: "As part of Russia’s regular military exercises, we anticipate that this summer, Russia will conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States.
"These actions will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall."
The US does not see the move involving a relatively small number of vessels and planes as threatening, but the US Navy will monitor the exercises, the official added.
It's not the first time Russia has sent its ships to the Caribbean.
Last year, the Russian navy’s training class ship Perekop sailed into Havana, while the Admiral Gorshkov was spotted in the same harbour in 2019.
The Biden official stressed that the recent move is certainly part of a Russian response to the US's support for Ukraine but also an attempt for Putin to show off his navy - after losing several ships to Ukrainian strikes.
"This is about Russia showing that it's still capable of some level of global power projection," the official said.
By Tom Malley
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is seen as the moment the world came closest to a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union.
On October 27, American destroyer USS Beale was paroling the US blockade around Cuba.
The ship clocked a Soviet B-59 nuclear submarine lurking beneath the blockade, and dropped a series of unarmed depth charges as warning shots to the Soviet sub.
But the submarine captain failed to realise the charges were non-lethal, and ordered the ship's nuclear-tipped torpedo to be prepared for launch.
The mistake would have started World War Three, if only the submarine's launch protocol didn't need all commanding officers on-board the sub to sign off on it.
Vasili Arkhipov, B-59’s second in command, refused to agree to the strike and eventually talked his captain down.
Without Arkhipov's cool head on-board the sub, the strike would have escalated the Cold War to a full-blown nuclear showdown.
