The encounter reportedly occurred on 17 Jun in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) was conducting flight operations, sending war planes over Syria. Truman is on the way home from the Persian Gulf, and has been flying over Syria for months – but not through the air space along the Syrian coast, where Russian military aircraft are using bases, and going to and from their missions in the Syrian war zone. Instead, prior to Truman‘s arrival in the Med for the home-bound transit, the carrier’s air wing had been approaching Syria from the east.

The public hasn’t been told what specific objections the Russians may have made to this excursion by Truman and her air wing. The excursion will be short-lived, to be sure. Truman, which was in port Souda Bay, Crete from 20 to 28 June, is headed home to Norfolk, and her relief, USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN-69), is passing through the Med to the Gulf.

But the confrontation in EASTMED on the 17th is one in a series of indicators that Russia intends to make it harder for Obama to keep doing stupid sh**, along the line of confrontation between Russia and whatever Obama represents now (the empty shell of NATO?), in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.