Posted on 10/07/2008 4:20:15 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
MOSCOW (AFP) — Military exercises due to be held by Russian and Venezuelan navy are not aimed against the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published Tuesday.
"Russia and Venezuela have no plans of attacking anybody, they cooperate on the basis of international law," Lavrov told the state Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily, slamming "hypothetical scenarios of unimaginable attacks on the United States".
"Among the US leadership and that of several other countries that chose absolute loyalty to Washington's way of thinking, the geopolitical ideology of doing everything possible to rein in Russia prevails," the minister deplored.
A fleet of Russian warships, led by the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, are due to take part in joint exercises next month with the Venezuelan navy near US waters, something which has not been done since the Cold War.
The deployment follows the arrival of two Russian Tu-160 nuclear bombers in Venezuela last month also for exercises, an event that Chavez branded a "warning" to the US "empire."
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.google.com ...
No No No - its aimed at Canada...Russia want the much desired Beaver tails
So, hmmmm, do you think we will offer to help rescue the Kursk in this exercise? lol I’m glad I’m not in the Russian navy.
If it walks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, and if it looks like a duck, you figure it out. Naval exercises in an area provide many valuable bits of info to the persons conducting the operation. Coordinated ops with another country adds to one’s experience in many interesting ways. Do you suppose that any of those Russian ships contain any electronic snooping capabilities? How about ECM equipment. Sounding equipment to improve their charts? And so on.
Of course not. It’s for intimidating Aruba.
Wonder if they’ll fire up K-19 for the excercise.
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