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Russia Eyes Venezuela, Cuba For Bomber Bases

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The Associated Press

Published: March 15, 2009

MOSCOW - A Russian air force chief said Saturday the country could base some strategic bombers in Cuba or on an island offered by Venezuela, the Interfax news agency reported, but a Kremlin official said the military had been speaking hypothetically.

Russia has nothing to gain from basing long-range craft within relatively short range of U.S. shores, independent military analyst Alexander Golts said, calling the military statement a retaliatory gesture aimed at hitting back after U.S. ships patrolled Black Sea waters near Georgia.

He said the bombers are considered strategic because they are capable of flying within attack range of the United States from Russia without the need for stopovers.

The chief of staff of Russia's long-range aviation program, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, was quoted as saying Saturday that Venezuela had offered "a whole island with an airdrome, which we can use as a temporary base for strategic bombers."

Interfax reported he said earlier that Cuba has air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers.

But Alexei Pavlov, a Kremlin official, told The Associated Press that "the military is speaking about technical possibilities, that's all. If there will be a development of the situation, then we can comment," he said.

Mike Hammer, spokesman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said, "We do not comment on hypotheticals."

POLITICAL MANEUVERING

The United States and Russia have been trying to rebuild their relationship, severely strained over U.S. plans initiated under former President George W. Bush to position missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic and by Russia's invasion of U.S. ally Georgia last year.

•Russia has welcomed Obama's apparently more cautious approach to the divisive issue. The United States insists the missiles are intended to counter potential future threats from Iran.

•U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva earlier this month to push a symbolic red "reset" button, another sign of the desire for a clean slate.

A wire report

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