While Washington rushes two carriers, 150 cargo flights and dozens more F‑35s, F‑22s and F‑16s toward the Gulf, Russia is quietly staging a shadow show of force from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf. In Kamchatka, the MPK‑82 fires RBU‑6000 salvos in night drills to “block enemy subs,” as the Pacific Fleet hones anti‑submarine warfare. Simultaneously, corvette Stoikiy docks in Iran’s Bandar Abbas ahead of joint Russian‑Iranian naval exercises in the Sea of Oman and northern Indian Ocean.