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Latest update: 09/09/2008
- Russia - Venezuela
Russian navy to train in Venezuelan waters
In a move likely to be seen as a riposte to the arrival of NATO ships in the Black Sea, Russia is to carry out joint naval manoeuvres with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea in November, the Venezuelan navy announced.
In a military first certain to raise eyebrows in the United States, Russia will carry out joint naval maneuvers in the Americas with Venezuela, the Venezuelan navy said Saturday.
Four Russian ships with almost 1,000 sailors aboard will carry out joint maneuvers with the navy of Caracas' leftist government in Venezuelan territorial waters November 10-14, the navy said in a statement.
"This is of great importance because it is the first time it is being done" in the Americas, Venezuela's navy joint chiefs strategic intelligence director, Rear Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said in a statement obtained by AFP.
Leftist-populist President Hugo Chavez is a harsh critic of the US government. Moscow has been clashing with Washington over formerly Soviet Georgia.
Chavez, who has forged closer ties with Moscow including arms supply and production deals, is proud to claim a "strategic alliance" with Moscow. Chavez has supported Moscow in the Georgia conflict, and stressed that: "Russia is rising up again as a global power."
Cammarata Bastidas said the joint maneuvers also would include Venezuela's air force, and submarines.
Meanwhile in the US administration's most hawkish remarks since Russia's five-day war with Georgia last month, Vice President Dick Cheney, traveling in Italy, reminded the West of its "responsibilities" and criticised Russia for its "chain of aggressive moves."
Cheney's tough talk came hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow was a "force to be reckoned with," as tensions between Russia and the West soared to heights unseen since the Cold War.
Medvedev accused the United States of rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid, after Friday's arrival of the US Navy's Mediterranean flagship at a key Georgian port close to where Russian troops are patrolling.
"I wonder how they would like it if we sent humanitarian assistance using our navy to countries of the Caribbean that have suffered from the recent hurricanes," Medvedev said.
Russia's defense ministry in July denied a report it was considering basing bomber aircraft in Cuba in retaliation for US missile defense plans in Eastern Europe. "We regard these sorts of reports from anonymous sources as disinformation," RIA Novosti quoted defence ministry spokesman Ilshat Baichurin as saying.
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Comments (5)
Russia and the US
This was so predictable. Cheney should have stayed out of the area, not commited to building a non-functioning missile defence in former USSR territories. The USA was told by many that this would escalate the return to another Cold War but perhaps that was the purpose.
What next?
Hi all. This situation with USA and Russia reminds me very much "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy when the both sides used to take one step by another to the nuclear war and finally found themselves in two inches from it. So I wander where they (USA and Russia) are going to stop now on this so easy, and in a some sense even amusing (due to its agitation, pseudo-interest and so on) way to NOTHINGNESS.
terrorists
kenneth, i couldnt agree with you more BUSH CHENEY worlds no1 terrorists.
ugh
How lovely.....I live in Florida...how far do I need to be moving to be out of the way when this breaks loose?
Operation Checkmate
What an upturn? While the U.S. and its NATO surrogates were trying to encircle Russia with a Missile Shield, the Russians were very busy building alliances with South American states to out-manoeuvre the U.S. It loks as if the Russian caught the U.S. with its pants down. Now the U.S. has to counter the Russian CHECKMATE. But it's too late to react, and the U.S. is itself now in a position of jeopardy. That moron in the White House they call a genius, by that I mean George W. Bush has been asleep at the wheel and has now put the U.S. into a vulnerable position.
George W. Bush of 'BRING IT ON' fame aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, is now realizing that he has a very feeble brain that is very slow to react. When he retires, I hope he heads for the nearest Asylum or Mental Institution for a long deserved rest. But, it is in the best interest of the world that Dick Cheney follow closely behind George W. Bush to the Asylum, because he is a certified Mental Case.