With the possible termination of nuclear disarmament treaties, Moscow is increasing its presence near the US border.
December 11, 2018
Russia is preparing for a long-term military presence in Central America. It is in this aspect that the flight to Venezuela of a Russian air group headed by two strategic Tu-160 missile carriers should be considered. Joint exercises in which the pilots of the two countries will take part, apparently, are only one of the events planned after last week’s visit to Moscow by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In the US, this is more than concerned. It is no coincidence that US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that sending Tu-160 Russian strategic missile-carrying ships to Venezuela is “squandering public funds by two corrupt governments.” As for the costs of flying Russian aircraft to Central America, of course, these are substantial sums. But there is reason to believe that they will pay off for both Russia and Venezuela in terms of military security.
According to military-diplomatic sources, the leadership of the Russian Federation decided (and Maduro did not object) to deploy Russian strategic bombers on one of the Venezuelan islands in the Caribbean, where there is a naval base and a military airfield. We are talking about the small island Orchila, located 200 km north-east of Caracas, which Russian experts and the command of the Russian Armed Forces visited 10 years ago.
Satellite imagery of the runway on La Orchila
Then, the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez offered this island to host the Russian Long-Range Aviation Aircraft. In September 2008, the Tu-160 missile carriers landed for the first time at Maiquetia International Airport, near Caracas. Based on a civilian airfield of missile carriers, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads, is certainly not the best option. Chavez, as a former pilot, spoke about his idea to his Russian colleagues to place the Tu-160 on the island. During a visit to the Russian Federation in the fall of 2008, he officially proposed this to the then President Dmitry Medvedev.
According to Venezuelan law, military bases cannot be deployed in the country, however, temporary deployment of military aircraft is possible. In March 2009, the then Chief of Staff of YES, Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, who was visiting Venezuela and a military base in the Caribbean, said “it is advisable to use the airfield on Orchila Island for temporary deployment of strategic aircraft of the Russian Air Force.”
Dmitry Medvedev, did not move on that decision. He later signed the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START-3) with the United States. The Tu-160 rarely appeared in Central America until 2013, when demonstrating support for the newly elected President Maduro, they again landed at the international airport in Caracas.
Today, the United States wants to withdraw from the Treaty on Medium and Short Range Missiles and does not intend to extend the START-3 Treaty. Here again, the Tu-160 does not appear very far from the United States in order to patrol airspace over the Caribbean Sea and other waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Russian pilots and specialists who have arrived in Venezuela must now conduct a reconnaissance at the Orchila Island military base. Indirectly, the task of arranging the airfield for flights of the Tu-160 is evidenced by the fact that the Russian air group is headed by the Commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Air and Space Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant-General Sergey Kobylash. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, meeting on December 6 in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, stated that “the two countries have relations, but I would like to deepen them and make them more effective.”
“We now want to go beyond conventional military-technical cooperation and develop cooperation at the operational level,” said the Venezuelan minister at a meeting with Shoigu in April 2018. Last week, Sergei Shoigu stated that the practice of flights of Russian military aircraft to Venezuela’s airfields will continue, and ships of the Russian Navy will call at the ports of this country.
“The idea of using Venezuela for solving long-range aviation tasks is a very good idea,” military expert Colonel Shamil Gareev, told NG. – and in economic terms, very reasonable. Our “strategists” do not need to fly to Russia and refuel in the air, patrolling America. Our Tu-160 flew to Venezuela at its base, completed the tasks, and then were replaced on the basis of rotation. That’s the way to do it. ”
Corresponding Member of the Academy of Military Sciences, Colonel Edward Rodyukov told NG that “the Wall Street Journal in America last week stated in one of its materials that Russia is trying to increase its influence in Latin America, while it is active in the Middle East and in conflict with Ukraine. And here, according to journalists, the refusal of US President Donald Trump to meet with the Russian leader at the G20 summit “is a signal of disapproval of Moscow’s actions”. The expert is certain that “the flights of the Russian Tu-160 missile-carriers to Central America are a signal to Trump to consider that a withdrawal from the nuclear disarmament agreements will have a boomerang effect.”
Translation by Internationalist 360°
