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Russia May Be Stepping Up Latin America Influence
By ALEX RODRIGUEZ | Chicago Tribune
September 26, 2008
MOSCOW — - When the Bush administration dispatched two U.S. warships to the Black Sea to deliver humanitarian aid to war-stricken Georgia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reacted with indignation and a warning.

"There will be an answer," Putin said during a visit to Uzbekistan. Asked to elaborate, Putin replied, "You'll see."

The Kremlin has made it clear what he meant. It deployed two Russian strategic bombers to Venezuela to patrol Caribbean waters earlier this month, and on Monday it dispatched a Russian navy squadron to Venezuela for military exercises.

The appearance of the Tu-160 bombers and the expected arrival of four Russian warships in a Latin American country run by one of the Bush administration's most outspoken foes, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, marks Moscow's clearest signal yet that it intends to ramp up its influence in Latin America if Washington persists in setting root in territory the Kremlin regards as its backyard.



"It may look unfriendly to Americans, but now you can have the same feeling as we had in Russia," said Andrei Klimov, a Putin loyalist and deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee for the Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament.

Though they posed no immediate military threat, the Russian bombers' visit marked the first such deployment in the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War. They returned to their base in Engels, Russia, last week, but the Kremlin plans to send back the bombers to Venezuela for exercises with Chavez's forces in November.

Russian warships that left the naval port of Severomorsk on Monday, including the nuclear-powered Peter the Great cruiser, will also take part in those exercises.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said this month that the bombers' deployment was "something we will watch very closely." From a military standpoint, however, their appearance in Venezuela carries little significance. Though capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the bombers were not armed and were shadowed by NATO F-15 fighter jets over the Atlantic.

Nevertheless, their deployment, along with the departure of the naval squadron on Monday, signals the Kremlin's willingness to vent its fury over U.S. missile defense plans in eastern Europe and NATO's eastward expansion by strengthening alliances with Latin American governments that dislike Washington.

From the viewpoint of Russians, it's hard to understand why a country that espouses Monroe Doctrine philosophy to safeguard its own corner of the world sees nothing awry with staking out territory in former Soviet republics.

"This can be seen as reciprocity," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine. "The message is, if you don't respect our interests in neighboring countries, in what President [Dmitry] Medvedev calls our sphere of privileged interests, then don't be surprised when we do the same in your sphere."

Up until recently, the Kremlin has shown scant interest in Latin America. In 2001, Putin, then Russia's president, shut down Russia's sprawling electronic monitoring and surveillance base near Havana, telling Russians that their country needed to devote its attention and money to its biggest trading partner — Europe.

However, as Russia has used its energy wealth to re-emerge as a geopolitical power in recent years, it has sought out alliances with faraway governments, some of which have antagonistic relationships with the United States.

With Chavez becoming one of the Western Hemisphere's most problematic leaders for Washington, the Kremlin has nurtured stronger ties with him. Russia has sold Venezuela $4 billion in arms, including 24 Sukhoi-30 fighter jets, 50 military transport helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Chavez has also expressed interest in buying as many as 20 anti-aircraft missile systems and three Russian submarines. Earlier this year, Medvedev and Chavez signed deals to allow Russia to develop new Venezuelan oil deposits. And Chavez has said he would welcome the establishment of Russian military bases in his country, if Russia ever chose that path.

"We will raise flags, beat drums and sing songs, because our allies will come, with whom we have a common world view," Chavez said in Moscow this summer.

Russia's burgeoning friendship with Chavez has coincided with the Bush administration's push for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as its strong support for NATO membership for former Soviet republics Georgia and Ukraine. Washington says its plan for missile defense in eastern Europe is aimed at defending against a future attack from Iran, but the Kremlin believes the system's real target is Russia.

Moscow also believes NATO's eastward expansion is meant to encircle Russia with the Western alliance's military might, and therefore poses a direct threat to Russian national security.

http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-ctrussia0926.artsep26,0,2137748.story