Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
March 15, 2009
Pg. 12
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.
In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia’s long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.
“There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,” he said. “If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.”
He confirmed that Mr. Chávez had offered the use of a military airfield on La Orchila island. “If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,” he said.
Russia has bolstered its ties with Cuba and Venezuela in the past year. High-ranking Russian officials, including President Dmitri A. Medvedev, have made visits to Cuba, and Moscow hosted Raúl Castro, the Cuban president, in January. The two governments signed a series of bilateral agreements, though there was little mention of military plans.
Russia’s bomber fleet has been a favored piece in geopolitical gamesmanship with the United States. In August 2007, Vladimir V. Putin, then the president, punctuated the military’s growing assertiveness by reinstituting long-range patrols by nuclear-capable bombers over the world’s oceans. And Venezuela, with an eye toward rankling the United States, hosted two Russian strategic bombers last year and also conducted joint naval exercises with Russia.
At the time, top United States military officials played down the joint efforts, with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that Russia and Venezuela had the right to work together “if they see fit.”
March 15, 2009
Pg. 12
By Ellen Barry
MOSCOW — A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.
In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia’s long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.
“There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,” he said. “If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.”
He confirmed that Mr. Chávez had offered the use of a military airfield on La Orchila island. “If a relevant political decision is made, this is possible,” he said.
Russia has bolstered its ties with Cuba and Venezuela in the past year. High-ranking Russian officials, including President Dmitri A. Medvedev, have made visits to Cuba, and Moscow hosted Raúl Castro, the Cuban president, in January. The two governments signed a series of bilateral agreements, though there was little mention of military plans.
Russia’s bomber fleet has been a favored piece in geopolitical gamesmanship with the United States. In August 2007, Vladimir V. Putin, then the president, punctuated the military’s growing assertiveness by reinstituting long-range patrols by nuclear-capable bombers over the world’s oceans. And Venezuela, with an eye toward rankling the United States, hosted two Russian strategic bombers last year and also conducted joint naval exercises with Russia.
At the time, top United States military officials played down the joint efforts, with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that Russia and Venezuela had the right to work together “if they see fit.”