Ex-KGB Spy 'Worried' About Russian Warships Near Florida

A former KGB spy said this week that he is "worried" about the arrival of Russian warships seen near Florida.

On Wednesday, Jack Barsky, a former KGB spy for Russia, appeared on NewsNation's The Hill to speak about the Russian warships seen near the coast of Florida and Cuba in recent days, saying, "Vladimir Putin is again up to his own tricks. He likes to scare people."

"With this kind of tension that we have, there's always the possibility of an accidental launch," Barsky said. "I'm worried about that."

"You've got to be worried about this kind of stuff. You can't look at this as just a routine exercise. It has to be seen against the background where Putin is stating that he's actually fighting the West in the Ukraine," Barsky added while speaking on NewsNation.

The comments by Barsky come shortly after several Russian warships were seen near the coast of Florida, amid Moscow's ongoing war with Ukraine. A four-ship Russian naval flotilla, including the frigate Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, entered the Caribbean on Wednesday en route to Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida—highlighting the escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine.

Moscow has said the fleet is simply conducting routine military drills with its allies in Havana.

A map from MarineTraffic, a website that tracks ships worldwide, shows the route of the Russian fleet through the Caribbean. According to the website's live tracker, the Russian rescue tug Nikolay Chiker was 26 nautical miles from Key Largo, Florida, as of Wednesday morning.

A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek that the U.S. anticipates "heightened naval and air activity near the United States" this summer.

"These actions will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall," the spokesperson said. "There may also be some aircraft deployments or flights in the region. Russia's deployments are part of routine naval activity, and we are not concerned by Russia's deployments, which pose no direct threat to the United States."

Newsweek reached out to the State Department via email on Thursday for further comment.

Since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, the U.S. has continued to supply Kyiv with military and economic assistance, prompting criticism from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that Moscow could amend its nuclear doctrine due to "the unacceptable and escalatory actions" of the West.

Putin also made similar comments last week, saying that Russia is "carefully watching what is happening in the world around us and do not exclude making some changes to this doctrine."

"This is also related to the testing of nuclear weapons," he added.

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