Russia Halts NATO's Attempt to Strengthen Presence in Arctic

The Russian Navy prevented the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) presence in the Arctic by monitoring a naval group from that bloc in the Barents Sea today, according to Russian television.

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The U.S. destroyers USS Donald Cook, USS Porter and USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt, together with the British frigate HMS Kent, went into the sea of Barents, for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

They were accompanied on the crossing by ships from the Russian Northern Fleet.

Although the American command claims to have recently warned the entrance to the aforementioned basin, experts consider their attempts to "demonstrate solidarity" among NATO allies to be unconvincing.

The American destroyers, of the Arleigh Boorke class, are equipped with the Aegis anti-missile defense system and MK-41 universal launch ramps, capable of launching, among other missiles, the Tomahawk winged rockets.

These are ships with high firepower that prowl the Russian coast, something that the local media describes as provocation.

The naval group's march through the Barents Sea comes after the Pentagon proclaimed its Arctic Doctrine in October last year. 

The Doctrine proclaims that the U.S. armed forces are tasked with preventing the operation of the Northern Sea Route.

The route is seen by Moscow as a strategic project to promote the
global transport of goods through Arctic waters near the Russian coast. 

In a demonstration of the readiness of its forces to protect that region, on 26 Last April, Russia for the first time in history landed troops at 10,000 metres high in the cold of the Arctic.