BBC: Russian navy sails to Venezuela

[marmar]

Russian navy sails to Venezuela


Russian warships have set off for Venezuela for joint exercises unprecedented since the Cold War.

The fleet of ships, headed by the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser, set off from its base at Severomorsk in the Arctic.

The ships are due to take part in joint manoeuvres with Venezuela in November.

The move is seen as a rebuff to the United States, which is facing increasingly fraught relationships with the two nations.

Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the ships set sail at 1000 local time (0600 GMT), and would travel 15,000 nautical miles to reach their destination.

"It's the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, the anti-submarine warship Admiral Chebanenko and other accompanying ships," he told the AFP news agency.

Two Russian bombers arrived in Venezuela last week for training flights.

Moscow has intensified ties with Venezuela and other Latin American countries recently as its relationship with Washington has become strained.

Caracas and Moscow have signed arms contracts, and are looking to extend bilateral co-operation on energy. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7628899.stm

[LiberalFighter]

1. Good going Bush!

[LaPera]

2. No one is allowed in this hemisphere but American imperialism...It belongs only

to the US any we can go into any hemisphere because we have lots of bombs and we are tougher!!!

"It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to "

[panader0]

3. Putin is pissed that the US Navy has so many ships in the Black Sea

supposedly "aiding" Georgia. Except that the ships are missle bearing ships and not the big aid ships needed. We flex muscle in their back yard, and they respond in kind.

[Pavulon]

5. Same ships showed up after Tsunami

normal response. Surface ships are not valuable in that space.

[clear eye]

8. I absolutely get chills when I see Russia going into the trap that Cheney

set, because it sets up one more pillar of a potential fascist takeover--continual warfare. I'm getting very uneasy that the neocons see a looted economy and general unrest in the U.S. as an opportunity to succeed where they narrowly missed in the 1930's. There are only three reasons a fascist coup missed back then--1)they relied on a military coup rather than stolen elections, 2)FDR knew how to play hardball and exacted a promise not to interfere with his economic rescue in exchange for hushing up the conspiracy by the large mfrs., and 3)Communism had not yet been discredited, so many of the urban desperate supported that extreme rather than fascism when it looked like the Republic was failing. As you can see, none of those obstacles pertain now.

[Pavulon]

4. Ship laid down '86 sailed 96'

hope it does not sink during the trip. The Russian navy has very few ships built after the fall of the USSR.

BIW and Ingalls seem to have been pretty busy.

[ben_meyers]

6. So Sarah, what about that Monroe Doctrine and the

Roosevelt Corollary?

In what respect Pooti?

[Selatius]

7. This wouldn't be happening if Bush hadn't tried to have Chavez killed in 2002.

After that coup attempt, who can blame Chavez for seeing a CIA-sponsored conspiracy to have him murdered behind every corner?

[DumptyHumpty]

9. Chavez gives the finger

But he better watch out. Bush tried to oust him in 2002. He knows how that rat plays.

Chavez can get a bit wild, but he is doing the right thing for the poor of his country, and at least they believe in real democracy.

[Pavulon]

10. The CIA generally gets that part right.

diem and others underscore that. The succeeding power usually pops them in the head to be sure to collect the massive sums of cash involved. If he brings russia in he may end up on the list for real.

As for the long term impact of flipping governments that seems to have a generally poor track record.

He does seem to be on a weapons buying spree. None of that hardware is relevant to any branch of the US Military so who is he protecting himself from?

[clear eye]

11. The economic elite of his country, a tiny minority, want him out of the way.

There is more than one way the U.S. can overthrow a foreign leader. Direct military assault is the least likely. Doing a Chile is the most probable. So those arms are for that type of defense.

If you are implying that he needs to defend himself against the mass of his people, you need to do a little Googling on his popularity. It is soaring.