New, Old Tricks Russian & Venezuela
December 1, 2008 by Stephen Anderson
Filed under Guest Articles
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV (Associated Press) | MOSCOW (AP) — The voyage of the cruiser Peter the Great, scheduled to arrive in Venezuela next week with a squadron of other Russian warships, was meant to showcase the Kremlin’s ability to project naval power abroad and reassert its claim to great power status.
But the arrival of the 24,000-ton nuclear-powered vessel and its escorts may mark the end of an era of rising ambitions for the Russian navy, not its beginning.
Russia’s plans to conduct exercises in the Carribean for the first time since the Cold War were made before the global financial crisis mauled the country’s energy-based economy. Plunging oil prices, some believe, could end Moscow’s aspirations for a stronger presence in the Western Hemisphere.
The Peter the Great, a missile destroyer and two support vessels from Russia’s Northern Fleet set off for Venezuela late September, in what was widely seen as a show of the Kremlin’s anger over the U.S. dispatch of warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its August war with Russia. A pair of Russian strategic bombers visited Venezuela for a week in September. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent its planes and navy ships to Cuba.
The squadron’s arrival next week is timed to coincide with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s planned trip to Venezuela and other Latin American nations. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an unbridled critic of the U.S. policy, said his nation needs a strong friendship with Russia to reduce U.S. influence and keep the peace in the region.
Some experts, though, question the military value of the exercise.
“The Kremlin is continuing its anti-American course in the nineteenth century style,” said Alexander Golts, an independent military analyst. “But it makes no sense militarily. A couple of ships struggling to make it to South America aren’t going to strengthen Russia’s posture against the United States.”
Medvedev vowed in September that Russia will follow up on the Venezuelan cruise with other maneuvers worldwide. But its navy capability is limited.
“Russia simply lacks ships for the purpose>>>>Read the Full Article
