Two TU-160 Strategic Bombers Land In Venezuela

[Ryan Ruck]

Two TU-160 Strategic Bombers Land In Venezuela

Two Tu-160 Russian strategic bombers landed at the Libertador military airfield, in central Venezuela, on Wednesday to carry out training flights in the region, local news agencies said quoting a source in Russia's Defense Ministry.

"Two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force will conduct a number of training flights over neutral waters in the next few days and later return to their home base in Russia, said a spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, according to the code of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is a supersonic bomber with variable-geometry wings that came into service in the late eighties, reported AFP.

[Malsua]

Those bombers are essentially a B1a.

They go up, they go down. The can't deliver. Lets hope chavez blows his petrowad on as much of this as he can.

[Backstop]

And now Chavez has ordered the U.S. Ambassador out.

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Russian Nuke Cruise In Venezuela Maneuvers As US Watches
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Sept 8, 2008
Russia said Monday it was dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for joint exercises with Venezuela, the first such maneuvers in the US vicinity since the Cold War.
The announcement came amid soaring tensions between Russia and the United States, including over the presence of US naval vessels sent close to Russian shores to deliver aid to Georgia, but Washington downplayed its significance.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Russian navy said the joint maneuvers would take place in November under an agreement sealed when the leaders of the two countries met in Moscow in July.
Among the Russian ships to take part in the exercises would be the heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, a vessel with massive firepower whose cruise missiles can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads.
Foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the Admiral Chabanenko, Russia's most modern anti-submarine destroyer, would also join the exercises, along with an unspecified number of anti-submarine naval aircraft.
He said the exercise had been planned for some time and was "not in any way connected to the current situation in the Caucasus," where Russian forces last month fought a brief war with US-ally Georgia.
"It is not aimed at any third country," he said.
The announcement of the maneuvers however came as tensions between the United States and Russia remained high and after Moscow questioned the use of US warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia following the conflict.
Asked what he thought about the US naval presence near where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Moscow would definitely respond, with "calm."
In Washington, the White House, which has sharply criticized Russia over its actions in Georgia and which also has an openly antagonistic relationship with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, shrugged off word of the maneuvers.
"We've seen the reports and we'll see how the exercise goes," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
The Pentagon also said it was not concerned.
"We exercise all around the globe and have joint exercises with countries all over the world. So do many other nations," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
In its statement, the Russian navy said the joint maneuvers with Venezuelan ships would include exercises in sea search and rescue as well as communications training, and would also have an unspecified aviation component.
The Venezuelan navy announced Saturday that four Russian ships with almost 1,000 sailors aboard would carry out joint maneuvers with the navy of Caracas' leftist government in Venezuelan territorial waters on November 10-14.
The Peter the Great cruiser is one of what NATO refers to as "Kirov Class" heavy missile cruise ships, the world's largest naval cruisers.
The ship is armed with the Granit long-range anti-ship missile system, which is known in the West as the Shipwreck missile. It also has a sophisticated air defense missile system capable of striking both air and surface targets.

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Russia's Venezuela Foray: Tit for Tat

Thursday, Sep. 11, 2008 By VIRGINIA LOPEZ / CARACAS


Miraflores Press Office / AP
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With Halloween just six weeks away, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is doing his best to alarm the White House by summoning up some Cold War ghosts. Late Thursday, he ordered U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave Venezuela within 72 hours, annoucing that he was withdrawing his own ambassador from Washington as well — moves, he said, that were taken in solidarity with Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who had expelled his country's U.S. ambassador a day earlier. Earlier on Thursday, Chávez had welcomed two Russian Tu-160 long-range bombers into Venezuela, where they'll spend some days conducting training flights before returning home. But the first foray by Russian strategic bombers into the Western hemisphere since the Cold War is simply the curtain raiser for joint naval maneuvers that will bring Russian warships into Venezuelan waters in November.
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The war games were announced by Chávez last weekend during his regular "Alo Presidente" broadcast. Russia will send its missile cruiser Peter the Great and the anti-submarine vessel Admiral Shabanenko, as well as two other vessels, sometime in November, and they are to be joined by a unit of Russian long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft that will be temporarily stationed at one of Venezuela's air bases. Coming on the heels of Russia's military action against U.S. ally Georgia, the November exercise will likely be seen by Washington as an act of geopolitical theater by Moscow, one that sends a warning that if the U.S. sees fit to make military alliances in Russia's backyard, then Russia is able to do likewise.
Both Chávez and the Russians, however, insist that the exercises were planned long before the Georgia debacle and that they are a natural outgrowth of expanding Venezuelan-Russian military cooperation. On his most recent visit to Russia, in July, Chávez purchased more than a dozen anti-aircraft systems and three "Varshavianka"-class submarines, bringing his total expenditure on Russian arms in the past four years to $4.5 billion. Purchases include 53 Russian helicopters and 24 Sukhoi fighter planes, and there's even talk of installing a Kalashnikov-rifle factory here sometime next year.
During that visit, Chávez hailed Russia as an ally but denied that Moscow would be allowed to build military bases in Venezuela — Article 13 of Venezuela's constitution forbids any foreign military bases on national territory. But retired Vice Admiral Mario Ivan Carratu sees the November exercise as a first step toward allowing Russian bases in Venezuela.
Just as Georgia is strategically located on a crucial energy route along Russia's southern periphery, Venezuela's location in the Caribbean makes it a key gateway to the oil economy of the Gulf of Mexico. Carratu believes that for Moscow, the planned naval exercise is a tit-for-tat response to U.S. efforts to recruit former Soviet territories for NATO, but that Venezuela makes itself vulnerable by substituting for the role played by Cuba ahead of the 1962 missile crisis.
But Chávez supporters see the alliance with Russia as simply a prudent hedge against a possible U.S.-led invasion. Venezuela is forced to purchase arms from Russia, argues one Chávista who preferred to remain anonymous, because the U.S. has banned weapons sales to the country and has pressured its allies to do likewise.
Russian media quoted military spokesman Captain Igor Digalo as saying the role of the Russian vessels would be confined to search-and-rescue and communications exercises. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andréi Nesterenko stressed in a briefing that the maneuvers had been planned before Russia entered into any conflict with Georgia. In Washington, however, the move is likely to be seen as a provocation — particularly coming as it does in sequence with the expulsion of Ambassador Duddy.
"Traditionally, Venezuela has engaged in joint military operations with numerous countries," says military expert Carlos Hernandez. "It is a common practice that allows our military to learn from others. What does seem provocative is to call Russia an ally in a moment in which the tensions between this country and the U.S. are escalating."
Despite government denials, however, Chávez's defiant response to criticism over the planned naval exercises seems to underscore the idea that they are intended as a message to Washington. Speaking on his weekly TV program, the Venezuelan leader said of concerns about the planned maneuvers, "Go ahead, Yankees, whine!"

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Chavez Hails End of ‘Yankee Hegemony’ As Russian Bombers Arrive

jonathan under International News, National Security
Via CNSNews.com

Russia’s defense ministry announced that two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed Wednesday at a military airfield in Venezuela, where they are scheduled to carry out training flights.
The planes, which have a range of more than 8,000 miles, traveled to the Latin American country “over neutral waters in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans,” and were tracked en route by NATO fighter planes, the ministry said.
The move comes several days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the region’s most outspoken critic of Washington, said he would welcome Russian planes and warships on his country’s territory.
Russian officials earlier this week confirmed plans to hold naval exercises with Venezuela later this year, but denied any link with the current tensions between Russia and the West over Georgia.
Russia’s Itar-Tass quoted Chavez Wednesday as saying he was planning to fly one of the bombers during their visit, having trained on a simulator.
According to Argentina’s Critica newspaper, Chavez in a televised speech said the Russian bomber visit, upcoming joint naval exercises and plans to purchase weaponry from Russia and China were all part of the move towards a “pluripolar” world – a foreign policy objective of Venezuela. “The Yankee hegemony is finished and the world becomes pluripolar,” he said.

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Russian nuclear bombers relive Soviet glory




1 day ago
ENGELS, Russia (AFP) — The Soviet glory days are back at this nuclear bomber base in southern Russia: the US is none too popular and the crews say they are ready to fly anywhere in the world at a moment's notice.
"It's like the good old days," Oleg Mikhailishchin, a pilot in camouflage uniform, told reporters during a rare visit by foreign media to the Engels base last month, before the war with Georgia further raised tensions with the West. More than 20 Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers could be seen on the runway near the Volga River at this once top-secret base, where the two Tu-160 "White Swan" planes that landed in Venezuela on Wednesday flew from.
Russia is also dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for the joint exercises with Venezuela, seen as a direct rebuff to the United States in the first such deployment since the Cold War.
Mikhailishchin spoke in a cafeteria dominated by a red Soviet emblem and a portrait of World War II commander Georgy Zhukov. The base was filled with a mixture of hi-tech equipment and crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure.
Vladimir Putin, then Russia's president and now the prime minister, gave the order in August 2007 for the Russian air force to resume long-range bomber patrols -- just like in the Cold War -- after a lull of 15 years.
The flights are a sign of Russia's new-found confidence on the world stage and have spread fear in Western capitals. For the Engels base, they have restored a sense of pride that was all but lost after the Soviet collapse.
"It's getting better and better," said Alexander Khaberov, a 36-year-old wing commander, after returning from a 12-hour mission across the North Atlantic during which he was intercepted by British and Norwegian fighter jets.
Khaberov flew a "White Swan," named after its Concorde-like sleek shape.
"It's nice to feel needed," said Gennady Stekachyov, 39, a flight commander, before roaring off the five-kilometre runway on exercises within Russia on a Tu-95 bomber, a Cold War icon better known by its NATO codename "Bear".
It was a Tu-95, a plane first developed in the 1950s, that dropped the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in northern Russia in 1961. The Tu-160 began to be built in the 1980s.
Asked about a newspaper report that the nuclear bombers could be based in Cuba in response to US plans to base a missile defence system in Eastern Europe, Stekachyov said: "We wouldn't have any problems flying to Cuba.
"If we're told to fly there and base ourselves there, then we'll do it.... Everything that's in the interests of our state is right," said Stekachyov, who graduated from an air force academy in Soviet times.
"I was here during the good times, then there was a period of stagnation," he said, remembering with bitterness the 1990s, when the base destroyed part of its fleet under a disarmament deal with the United States.
"All glory to the Americans," sneered Vladimir Dyakov, an officer at the base. Sergei Voronov, a former bomber pilot who now manages the local flight museum, said: "We gave in. It was hurtful for all our compatriots."
Yeltsin's deals with the United States are a painful memory, making Putin's role in reviving long-range bomber patrols all the more heroic. Putin's flight on a Tu-160 bomber in 2005 is remembered fondly at the Engels base.
His note in a guest book is repeated like a mantra: "Precise, efficient, beautiful." While things are looking up, however, pilots still complain their salaries of around 1,000 dollars (719 euros) a month are disappointing.
Putin "revalued the role of long-range aviation," Dmitry Kostyunin, deputy commander of the long-range bomber division based in Engels told reporters.
But Kostyunin also emphasised that the resumption of bomber patrols was not about Russian muscle-flexing but about global "friendship."
When Russian bomber pilots are intercepted by fighter jets in the air, the feeling is one of camaraderie, he said. "I think the fighter jets are also happy. The young pilots can see our planes, see how beautiful they are."
His comments contrasted with the numerous complaints from Western countries since the resumption of Russian bomber patrols, including in February this year when Japan accused the Russian bombers of violating its airspace.
Kostyunin, who once piloted long-range bombers in the Baltic states during the Cold War, said: "It is a symbol of power but also a symbol of goodwill... The more you know about us, the more you'll love and respect us."
Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

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Russia pilots proud of flights to foreign shores

By DAVID NOWAK – 22 hours ago
ENGELS AIR BASE, Russia (AP) — The Russian long-range bombers that have resumed missions into the Western Hemisphere nearly 20 years after the end of the Cold War are delivering a clear message: Russia wants to be seen as a global superpower once again.
At the base from which the missions have been taking off during the past year, the pilots were delighted, feeling they are back in action after a long layoff.
Foreign reporters were afforded a rare look at the Engels base on the windswept shores of the Volga River in early August. They were able to speak to the pilots, who described a friendly rapport with the NATO aircraft that are scrambled to escort them when they skirt foreign shores.
The day after the visit, conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia, a U.S. ally. There's no telling whether the rapport has changed, but the pilots have ridden out many storms in U.S.-Russia relations since the flights resumed.
The renewal of the long-range bomber flights in August 2007 has escalated tensions between the West and a Russia eager to reassert itself globally. This was highlighted by the arrival of two of Russia's top-of-the-line bombers in Venezuela on Wednesday, the first flights to come so close to American shores.
They landed there ahead of joint war games scheduled for November. Russia has said it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes for the exercises, which appear to be a response to the relaunch of the U.S. Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean. The fleet had been dissolved after World War II.
The Venezuela landing was the first in the Western Hemisphere by Russian military aircraft since the Cold War ended, and gave the West a close-up look at the world's largest supersonic bomber, known here as the White Swan.
The sleek, white bombers were conducting patrols over the Caribbean this weekend ahead of their return to Russia on Monday.
When the reporters visited Engels, Lt. Col. Alexander Khaberov had just landed his White Swan after a 12-hour sortie over the North Atlantic, and was exhilarated to be back on patrol.
"The feeling when the order came in was unbelievable," he said, shouting over the plane's engine noise.
"We get to do our thing. A real man's job," he said. "This place has more energy now. Before, there was a stagnation about the base."
Fresh-faced, immaculately uniformed with not a blond hair out of place, Khaberov looked the model pilot, showing no sign of fatigue after his long flight.
Lt. Col. Gennady Stekachyov was similarly energized.
"Pilots are made to fly. When someone needs you, it elevates you. People are configured that way. When no one needs you, all you want to do is sleep," said Stekachyov, who flies an older bomber known as the Bear.
The base is home to both of Russia's strategic bombers: the Tu-95, the Soviet answer to the American B-52 and known universally as the Bear; and the modern Tu-160, the White Swan, with its Concorde-style pointed nose, called the Blackjack in the West. Both bombers have conducted patrols over the Atlantic and Arctic.
Around the runway, six Tu-160s and eight Tu-95s were in view. A low-level camouflaged radar was rotating near by. The base, dormant for so many years, was now a hive of activity.
But despite record defense spending in recent years, none of the buildings open to reporters looked new or refurbished. Flight crews chowed down on a Soviet-era diet of canned beef with powder-based mashed potatoes.
"Of course, everyone was happy when the missions restarted. But the only real changes around here are that a few more flights are now planned," said Lt. Col. Vladimir Dyagov, a military spokesman.
The pilots, the more senior of whom earn only about $800 per month, appeared genuinely content and particularly excited about the mid-air camaraderie when U.S., Norwegian and British fighters approach.
Stekachyov said he usually gives them a thumbs-up.
"In the air we meet like colleagues," he said. "It's really nice to socialize with our foreign counterparts. It's not like some make it out to be. There are always nice gestures and smiles."
Russia said NATO planes escorted the Venezuela-bound sortie.
The long-range bomber flights were suspended in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union. One pilot likened life on the base during the base's 15 years of stagnation to that of a dog chained to a tree, but Stekachyov said it hadn't dulled the pilots' skills.
"We tried to maintain our skills during the lull as much as possible," he said. "But the backbone of the crew brought up in the Soviet system, of which I am one, is still around. There are even people with experience from World War II here. We are now improving our skills and passing them on to the new generation of pilots."
Rather than hostile to the West, the pilots seemed more keen that Russia be taken seriously as a military superpower once again.
"I respect the opinions of every country," said Col. Dmitry Kostyunin, a veteran of Cold War sorties.
"But I would like our opinion to be respected everywhere."


Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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US and Russia scrap nuclear pact after Moscow agrees to send warships to Venezuela
The US has postponed a deal on nuclear power with Russia as Moscow confirmed plans to send warships to the Caribbean.
By Jon Swaine
Last Updated: 9:19AM BST 09 Sep 2008
The agreement, which would have seen an exchange of nuclear technology, was shelved due to "deep concerns about Russian behaviour," according to Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
"We make this decision with regret," Miss Rice said in a statement. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement."
The announcement came shortly after Russia said it was dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for joint exercises with Venezuela.
A spokesman for the Russian navy said the joint manoeuvres would take place in November under an agreement signed when the leaders of the two countries met in Moscow in July.
Among the Russian ships to take part in the exercises would be the heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, which can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads.
Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the manoeuvres would not be directed against any third country.
At the weekend Venezuela's navy said it was ready to host the ships and almost 1,000 sailors in Venezuelan waters.
The US said it would keep watch on the exercises. "We've seen the reports and we'll see how the exercise goes," a US National Security Council spokesman said.
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, is a vocal critic of the US, and proudly boasts of a "strategic alliance" with Moscow, which spans arms supply and production deals. He backed Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's President, in its brief war last month with Georgia.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have reached their lowest point since the Cold War over Russia's invasion of Georgia and the implementation of US plans to build a missile shield in Poland.
The announcement came a week after Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, warned that Russia would mount an unspecified response to recent US aid shipments to Georgia.
The Pentagon played down the significance of the naval manoeuvres. "We exercise all around the globe and have joint exercises with countries all over the world. So do many other nations," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

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The United States Hopes that the Russian Squadron Fleet Fails to Arrive...

14.09.2008
Nil NIKANDROV

STRATEGIC CULTURE FOUNDATION

The planned visit of the Russian navy squadron to Caribbean Sea and the scheduled joint exercise with the Venezuelan Navy are viewed as the most significant events of the second half of the year. At last Russia is about to flex its navy muscles, having decided to fly Andreev Flag not in an “insignificant point of the world ocean” but rather not far from the United States. Instead of Cuba or Nicaragua Moscow has chosen Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for a partner, thus demonstrating that prospects of cooperation of naval forces with the countries south of the Rio Grande on a much larger scale are there.

Some 3 to 4 years ago such a “thrust” into the Western hemisphere would have appeared excessive from the point of view of geostrategy for fear of causing Washington’s resentment. Things started to happen afterwards when the drafting and signing of agreements on the setting up of anti-missile systems to be deployed the closest to Russia’s borders, the attraction of the former USSR constituent republics and shattering the fragile stability in the Caucasus came to the fore. On top of that George Bush and his team began to try to establish control over oil and gas flows in the Caucasus-Caspian region. The North American “partner” has evidently been testing the strength of the “Russian bear.” There is not much to say in this context to the effect that the joint Russian-Venezuelan naval exercise is in no way a threat to US interests in the Caribbean basin. Both Moscow and Caracas have stated that.

Hugo Chavez has underscored that the format of the manoeuvres was usual for the region, incidentally referring to the “South Cross” manoeuvres slated for November 12-14, 2008 in the Atlantic with the participation of Brazilian, French and Dutch naval force whose timing almost coincided with the Russia-Venezuelan manoeuvres.

So the aquamarine depths of the Caribbean would be cut by the steely stem posts of the four Russian navy vessels. The flagman is the nuclear-powered missile-carrying cruiser “Pyotr Veliki” that is designed to solve most complicated tasks of the contemporary naval battles, inclusive of neutralization of full-fledged air-carrier units. A second “solo player” in the Russian squadron is the anti-submarine chaser “Admiral Chabanenko” carrying the powerful arsenal of destruction of the latest nuclear-powered submarines. But much more modest tasks will be set out for the pending manoeuvres involving Russian and Venezuelan seamen. They include joint manoeuvring, communication testing and sea rescue operations.

By bringing into the picture of the pending exercise of Russian and Venezuelan navies the arrival to the Venezuelan air base “Libertador” of two “Bears”, the name the Western experts gave to the TU-160 strategic bombers, one can be confident saying that the Russian answer to the United States in the Caribbean direction appears to be both weighted and impressive. It can be admitted that during the naval exercise the Russian nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific would set out on emergency raids to the sites of their regular duty, and the “Bears” would once again be seen in the sky over the Caribbean – quite a clear hint that Russian armed forces have not lost their preparedness to be present in any part of the world.

According to mass media reports US officials were not especially anxious over both the friendly visit to Venezuela of the TU-160s and the announcement of the pending naval exercise. Someone at the State Department jibed venomously that the shabby and uncared-for vessels must have been unable to make such a long way. This statement, so typical of the times of “cold war” reflects the total degree of Washington’s resentment caused by Russia’s foray into the Caribbean. But is this exercise the only reason?

The US administration, the Pentagon and the Southern Group of US Army view the tuning of Russian-Venezuelan military and technical relations that began in may 2001 following Hugo Chavez’s visit to Moscow and his confidential talks with president Vladimir Putin as a sore. Hugo Chavez became a new leader on the once complacent Venezuelan field with its fool-proof dependent team, coming up with his own plans of reforming the army in the spirit of “Bolivarian ideas” and working out a new national defence and security doctrine, standing for the diversification of the nation’s military and technical ties in the interests of strengthening of his country’s sovereignty. Chavez both spoke and acted, taking the pain of the coup d’état of April 11-13, 2002, where the US military intelligence was much more involved than the CIA. The coup failed, but Chavez made his conclusions, given that actually all the military conspirators had been trained in US military institutions.

The Venezuelan leader began to steadily decrease military ties with the United States, making them expressly formal. From time to time US military attaches are expelled from that country after being matter-of-factly accused of espionage and recruiting agents in the Venezuelan army. The Pentagon retaliates with its own repressions: minimizing or cancelling financial aid for the military and refusing to supply spare parts for the US-made hardware. The latter measure was a pain to the Venezuelan Air Force, whose fighting capacity was dependent on US-base F-16 fighters.

The United States brought pressure against Western suppliers of armaments who refused to honour their Venezuelan contracts. Attempts to bring pressure upon Russia and its leaders failed. Relying on Russia’s assistance Venezuela is now successfully modernizing its armed forces that have now 24 Sukhoi-24 aircraft with the state-of-the-art electronic equipment and serious fire power. Combat and cargo MI helicopters prove efficient in the rugged terrain of Venezuela. Kalashnikov-103 attack rifles also proved reliable and practicality. The military continue bilateral negotiations. For example, they discuss terms of the purchase by Venezuela of three diesel Varshavianka-class submarines, sales to Venezuela of anti-aircraft systems and anti-tank equipment.

Chavez’s adversaries relay on the “cold war” stereotypes, accusing his country of unleashing the arms race in South America, even though the biggest military spenders there are Columbia, Chile, Peru and Brazil. Washington’s favourite project is the army of Columbia with its many years of experience of fighting leftist-Marxist guerrilla units. Columbia’s oligarchic leadership continues to cultivate enmity towards the Chavez regime, and according to the assessment of Venezuelan military experts could in certain circumstances be used by US “hawks” to unleash war on Venezuela.

Chavez frequently says: “The United States is ready to go to any extremes to capture our oil fields.” That’s why his desire to strengthen his country’s defence capability in full. Aside from Russia, it gets assistance from China, Belorussia and Iran.

It should not come as a surprise that 2009 could see the joint exercise of the Chinese and Venezuelan navies in the Caribbean. According to experts, China will in the short-term perspective begin to receive Venezuelan oil in excess of 1 million barrels a day, so the topic of the joint Chinese-Venezuelan exercise is easy to conceive. It can be the protection of the tanker fleet from potential terrorist attacks.

And finally, the pending visit of “Pyotr Veliki” will also be significant in that it could coincide with another Russian visit. But let us say no more, as surprises are only good when they are unexpected.

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		Russia
		Russian bombers conduct patrols along South American coast
		13:55 | 16/ 09/ 2008

MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - The two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers that landed in Venezuela last week have successfully carried out a patrol mission along the South American coast, a Russian Air Force spokesman said on Tuesday. (Russian strategic bombers - Image gallery)
"The aircraft took off from the Libertador airbase in Venezuela on Monday and flew along the South American coast toward Brazil," Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said.
The bombers landed back at the Latin American base after a six-hour flight.
"The flight was performed in strict accordance with international rules on the use of airspace over neutral waters, without violating the borders of other states," the spokesman said.
The Tu-160 Blackjack is a supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber, designed to strike strategic targets with nuclear and conventional weapons deep in continental theaters of operation.
According to the spokesman, the bombers are carrying dummy missiles without warheads and their primary mission is to practice patrol sorties in a tropical climate.
Drik earlier said that following the training mission, the Tu-160 crews would meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The bombers are set to leave Venezuela on Thursday and head back to their base in southern Russia.
"The aircraft will take off from an airfield near Caracas on September 18 and conduct a 15-hour return flight to Russia. Their landing at a base in Engels [Saratov Region] is scheduled for September 19," Drik said.
Russia resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans last August, following an order signed by then-President Vladimir Putin. Russian bombers have since carried out more than 90 strategic patrol flights and have often been escorted by NATO planes.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in mid-August that the Bush administration was unhappy with flights by Russian strategic bombers near U.S. borders and accused Moscow of playing a "dangerous game."

[Ryan Ruck]

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Russia in Caribbean Raises Fears of War With U.S.

23 September 2008 @ 9:18 pm by BobF

By: Tim Collie
As one of Russia’s nuclear-powered warships heads toward the Caribbean for military maneuvers with Venezuela, the suddenly resurgent country is raising fears of a future war with the United States.

The seizure of territories in the republic of Georgia last month seems to be only the first stage in a planned projection of military strength around the globe, say military experts.

The military exercises, which Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced only two weeks ago, has U.S. officials and others dusting off old Cold War strategies involving threats from Cuba, Mexico and South America that many thought were no longer valid…

The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela Monday with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War. In November, they are to be joined by a unit of Russian long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft that will be temporarily stationed at one of Venezuela’s air bases.

A serious threat, or simple political theater? The Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and up to 500 surface-to-air missiles, making it one of the most formidable warships in the world. But it’s a showpiece of a military that is still hindered by poor morale, drug use, desertion, and substandard equipment.

We all thought the Cold War had been won. By the leadership of President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher, the Soviet Union had capiculated and dismantled. Aparently the Soviet Union is gone but the Russian Bear only went into hybernation. He has awakeded and is hungry. Question is, can we stand toe-to-toe with the Russians like we did during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s?

Remember those hundreds of B-52’s that were based thought the United States at over a dozen SAC bases? Well, those hundreds are now less than 70 and their are only two B-52 bases left. What happened to all those B-52, which BTW, still had thousands of flying hours left on their airframes? Here’s the mighty B-52 fleet that protected the United States from the Soviets. Chopped into scrap to satisfy treaty requirements. After all, we were at peace. Just like we were at the end of WWI and WWII.

[Ryan Ruck]

Pictures of Davis Monthan/AMARG make me sad.