Two points:
1) What can a single destroyer in Cuba do? What I’d really be worried about is if he parked a couple of Typhoons off the East or West Coasts.
2) That ‘Budapest Memorandum’...yes, they should have given over all their nukes. What if they didn’t? What if they managed to sneak a few away for ‘insurance’? Would it it have been possible to flim-flam the nations doing the observing of the transfer? I say...you bet.
The Typhoons are a memory. All six have been retired and 3 have been scrapped. The other three are sitting with empty missile tubes as the R-39's have been retired from service. They may get the new Bulava missile, they may not. Probably depends on how successful the new Borei-class boomers are. Three are built, two are in active service. The remaining Typhoons will probably be scrapped.
“...What I’d really be worried about is if he parked a couple of Typhoons off the East or West Coasts....”
You know they’re out there. The ship in Cuba is probably part of their intelligence/targeting network. Putie Toot has a gun pointed at odongo’s head. The question is: How stupid is odongo after he finishes crapping his pants?
Yeah, what if? I doubt the Ukranian people have forgotten their historically bad treatment from the Russians. I wouldn't blame them a bit for retaining some insurance, and wouldn't be too surprized to see it put to use, soon.