© AFP / Corey BarkerCrew aborad the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG-107)
Two US destroyers that have entered the Baltic Sea are being shadowed by a pair of Russian warships, the Russian military has announced.
"The forces of the Baltic Fleet took Gravely and Porter, the destroyers of the US Navy that entered the southern part of the Baltic Sea, under escort.
Russian Navy corvettes Boiky and Soobrazitelny are monitoring the actions of the US ships," the Russian National Defense Management Center said in a statement released on Monday.
© AFP / Ford WilliamsThe guided-missile destroyer USS Porter transits the Mediterranean Sea on March 9, 2017
The USS Gravely was previously on assignment around Denmark, where it was reportedly seen approaching the Baltic Sea. In June, the destroyer was involved in a maritime incident in the Mediterranean Sea, in which Russia and the United States blamed each other for what they said were unsafe naval manoeuvres. The Russian Defense Ministry said at the time that
the USS Gravely had approached dangerously close to a Russian frigate, Yaroslav Mudry, calling the act a flagrant violation of protocol used to avoid collisions at sea.
© ReutersHandout photo of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely
Comment: If Russia did something similar you know the mainstream press would be wailing about 'Russian aggression', but when the US does it, repeatedly, and to China as well, apparently it's OK: