This is John Batcher, conversation with my colleague Joseph Umar, Executive Director of

at the Russian Flotilla in Havana, headed to Venezuela,

including a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying nuclear-tipped

missiles. Not this time, we're told. What is fresh here? What is new? What is a threat?

Joseph looks very carefully. the White House's explanation and

everybody else is shrug and the question of normalizing Russian interference in the

Americas. What about its allies Iran and China and

North Korea? What about all of that becoming normal?

Here's Joseph Umar explorers. What's next in this flotilla in Havana.

What's next in the fall, what's next in the winter, what's next for Havana and Venezuela

and Nicaragua.

More of this later tonight.

So Russia, obviously, this is the message of the White House that Russia has done this before,

that they have sent naval vessels to the Caribbean, specifically to Cuba

in the past, most recently in 2019, and that's mostly true.

But my understanding is they never sent a nuclear submarine.

That appears to be new.

And a second to that, I think the messaging of trying to normalize

this sort of military provocation on behalf of Putin could have detrimental effects for

U.S. national security because a logical extension of saying that this is normal is to say

why doesn't it happen next month or two months from now?

Why doesn't it happen every other month?

...