Russia's President Vladimir Putin pledged Monday to continue an ambitious program of building new warships on a trip to Crimea, which Russia has annexed from Ukraine.
Speaking during the keel-laying of two landing vessels at a shipyard in Kerch, Putin said that Russia needs a strong navy to defend its interests and "help maintain a strategic balance and global stability.”
The amphibious ships will be useful against non-NATO targets around the Black Sea. Against NATO there'd be a turkey shoot, I suspect; and heck, in time Ukraine might sink them, too.
The bigger problem--for Russia, not the West--with Putin's speech is about building a fleet. Although Putin's cited numbers of warships built are basically small coastal combatants rather than blue water ships.
Putin would be smart to simply mislead audiences about the size of Russia's fleet rather than actually build a blue water fleet because such an investment is foolish for a land power like Russia with huge land borders.
