Ben Rhodes: Russia sees Black Sea as ‘their real estate'

NBC News Pentagon Correspondent Courtney Kube and former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes join Andrea Mitchell to weigh in on the newly released footage from the U.S. military of a Russian jet pouring fuel on its reaper drone. “The Russians believe, say, ‘Crimea is their territory, Black Sea’s kind of their real estate, stay out of our neighborhood.’ I think that's the main message of these kinds of encounters,” says Rhodes. “Part of the reason that you have this kind of hotline, and this communication from Lloyd Austin and General Milley to the Russian counterparts, is to kind of manage that escalation risk, and probably to deliver the message: ‘We're not going to get out of this airspace. We're going to keep doing this. We have every right to fly planes in international airspace.’”March 16, 2023