Mark Mardell
Presenter, The World This Weekend
Nato muscle-flexing sends Putin firm message
An Italian frigate was among the Nato forces in the Black Sea
There is the sound of a gun firing in the Bulgarian port of Varna as Nato's Maritime Group Two comes into harbour.
Nato members:
How did Terry Pratchett tweet after his death?
He says Putin doesn't have the money to support the sort of military he wants.
He said: "Nato needs to develop a strategy for the future and it needs to hold exercises that are relevant to that strategy.
"Big countries of Europe, if they want to play a global strategic role, have to develop forces adequate for this. Not because America says so, but they have to balance their intentions with their capacities."
1982: Spain
But it is not just history.
Here, it is all business as usual, reassurance that this is a routine exercise, nothing out of the normal.
As the European Union, economically weakened, politically challenged from within, hesitates and debates about the nature of its purpose and the limits to its ambition and its borders, Russia shows no such introspection.
"We are here to train with our allies. This was scheduled back in 2014, and if we didn't come that would send a negative message to our allies, that the training with them wasn't important - it is vitally important.
First into harbour is the sleek, low grey shape of the Italian frigate, followed by a bulkier German refuelling tanker. Lastly a Turkish frigate pulls alongside them both.
The group has already been followed by Russian planes and ships - the commodore tells me: "We have some contact. We know Russian ships and aircraft are here."
How did Terry Pratchett tweet after his death?
There are Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia, as much as Ukraine.
But there is a lack of serious debate about how it fits into wider Western strategy towards Russia.
Nato sources say that is a direct reaction to Russia's occupation of Crimea - which they describe as quick and slick, catching the Western alliance off guard.
Denial of provocationI asked the veteran diplomat of the Cold War, Henry Kissinger, whether he thought such assertive military exercises made sense.
They also share the Cyrillic alphabet, and Varna has a good claim to be one of the places where that script was designed.
These include the land exercise Summer Shield in Latvia, Dynamic Mongoose, a submarine exercise off the coast of Norway, and Deployex, the test for a new 5,000-strong rapid reaction force, called Spearhead.
The top brass, however, are making it clear this is one part of a spring and summer of exercises and deployments specifically designed to warn President Putin off even thinking about attacking Nato countries.
"It does provide a reassurance to them that they are part of an alliance we care about, and that Nato's resolve is solid and firm."
But Nato is only an instrument, if a curiously semi-autonomous one. In the end it is the tool of its member states.
Bulgaria is not the only country with some ambivalence.
