Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Aug. 30 it would hold a major naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea from Sept. 1 to Sept. 8, the TASS news agency reported, a move that coincides with rising tensions between Moscow and Washington over Syria.
Russia has this month been actively expanding its naval forces in the Mediterranean, part of what a Russian newspaper on Aug. 28 called Moscow’s largest naval build-up since it entered the Syrian conflict in 2015.
