A Russian navy squadron set off for Venezuela today, an official said, in a deployment of Russian military power to the Western Hemisphere unprecedented since the Cold War.
RussiaThe Kremlin recently has moved to intensify contacts with Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American nations amid increasingly strained relations with Washington after last month's war between Russia and Georgia. During the Cold War, Latin America became an ideological battleground between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser accompanied by three other ships sailed from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk on Monday. The ships will cover about 15,000 nautical miles to conduct joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy, he said.
The deployment follows a weeklong visit to Venezuela by a pair of Russian strategic bombers and comes as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - an unbridled critic of US foreign policy who has close ties with Moscow - plans to visit Moscow this week. It will be his second trip to Russia in about two months.
The intensifying contacts with Venezuela appear to be a response to the US dispatch of warships to deliver aid to Georgia which angered the Kremlin.
President Chavez said in an interview with Russian television broadcast Sunday that Latin America needs a strong friendship with Russia to help reduce US influence and keep peace in the region. In separate comments on his Sunday TV and radio program, he joked that he will be making his international tour to Russia and other countries this week aboard the "super-bombers that Medvedev loaned me," a reference to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "Gentlemen of the CIA, to be clear, I'm joking," Mr Chavez said with a laugh.
President Chavez has repeatedly warned that the US Navy poses a threat to Venezuela.
AP