Posted on 07/21/2008 3:41:21 PM PDT by nuconvert
Russian military "considering stationing bombers on Cuba"
Jul 21, 2008
Moscow - The Russian military is considering deploying long- range bombers to Cuba to counter the perceived threat of the US missile defence shield planned to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland, according to Russian media reports Monday.
'At the moment, there are just thoughts - but that doesn't mean there isn't something concrete behind it,' an unidentified officer was quoted Monday as telling Izvestiya newspaper.
He said the aircraft under consideration were Tu-160 and Tu-95 MC bombers. Russia gave up in 2001 a base in Lourdes, Cuba, which had been set up during the Soviet era.
The former commander of this base, Lieutenant-General Mikhail Oparin, was quoted as welcoming the idea. 'Russia's air fleet must work towards a presence in every corner of the world,' he told Interfax news agency. The US, after all, had bases worldwide.
'An extended radius of action for our air force could be a response to the one-sided action of the USA in setting up a strategic system on Russia's borders,' he added.
The newspaper said that from a technical point of view there would be no problem basing Russian bombers on Cuba for a limited period. However, Moscow's view on doing this was unclear.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while he was still president, had threatened 'reprisal measures' if the US went ahead with basing its missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. He warned that Russia was able to target central Europe with its own missiles.
Russia views the planned deployment of ten US missiles in Poland and a radar facility the Czech Republic as a threat. However, the presence of Russian bombers on Cuba would provoke an international conflict, the Izvestiya report said.
Just 90 kilometres separated Cuba from the US coast, and the US had 'eyes and ears' on Cuba with its Guantanamo base.
In 1962 the Cuba crisis saw the US and Soviet Union in a dramatic face-off before Moscow abandoned plans to built missiles bases there.
Exactly.
Look, Putin is going fascist because that is what he feels is good for his economy. A fascist government does well for manufacturing and Russia’s infrastructure needs a lot of work(ers). America as a bogeyman is good for this goal. In the end, Russians are opportunists as all nations are. But there serious miscalulations have had very dramatic and negative effect to entire cultures over the last thousand years. Don’t feed the bears, LOL. There entire culture is about creating global mayhem for profit.
We’ll be like the Russians and drop some hockey pucks on the bottom of the Carribean with the US flag on them. Then we can simply confiscate there offshore drilling rigs. The Russians are not serious about Cuba. They get the BIG RED button if they even move cargo container one with a to-be-assembled version of the Blackjack bomber.
Hahahah. Very cool.
I am not so sure, oil will go down for a year but will rise again in the mid term. I believe Russia will wind up involved in the Iranian/Israel issue on nuclear matters and be implicated when some very serious things go bad. There true colors and ambitions will become unmasked and that will be dangerous. But I am just speculating, of course.
Hey Elenil, most every comment I see you make is pro-Russian, pro-communist and socialist. You do make some intelligent points but I don’t ever hearing about the benefits of capitalism. Why is that? Yes, we will joust with the Russians. In 2005 Putin gave his blanket assurance to the madmen in Iran. Now we will provide blanket assurances to ALL of our allies in Europe. Putin moves his pawn back and we move ours back. Thats how it works -
This only reinforces my point. Since they know the brutal nature of our enemy, why do they arm Syria, Iran, Hamas etc. to the teeth? Their problems with terrorists doesn’t give them the right to support those who kill our troops and civilians!
“And just who it was that invaded ‘Russis’ many many times’.”
Genghis Khan, early 1200’s, was a murderous conquerer to many groups. His decendent, Batu Khan and subsequent members of the “Golden Hoard” continued to conquer and rule althought they were savaged by Tamerlane, late 1300’s early 1400’s, another murderous Mongol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horde
Finally the Ottoman Turks defeated them and conquered the area that became southern Russia in the 1500’s. In the 1700’s there were several conflicts with Sweden. Then at the beginning of the 1800’s was the invasion and terrible death toll of Napoleons invasion so vividly portrayed in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” A few decades later the British and I think the French engaged southern Russia in the Crimean War. Russia withdrew from World War I in 1917, and after the war ended in 1918 British and American forces invaded her northern ports in an attempt to help the White Russian armies overthrow the Red Army. Last, but hardly least, was the terrible war with Adolph Hitler wherein some 20 or more million Russians died.
Gee, do you think a little paranoia might be warranted?
Why should the Russians care what you think?
But about this latest chess move: Unfortunately the US is moving away from “deterrence” posture and moving into a “compellence” posture. Not a good idea and stupid too.
“These European ABMs are an adjunct to the longstanding US policy of nuclear first strike against Russia, ...” (Professor Francis Boyle, Global Research, June 2007)
This is very dangerous thinking on the part of this administration.
We should be working more closely with the Russians not jousting with them. I do not think many Americans take seriously the menace from the Islamic world...Russians do”
There is so much wrong with your reply that I needed to address each statement.
Churchill did understand Russian history-as much as anyone can. He was a student of history don't you know. He simply could not make sense of the Russians. Everything about them is counter intuitive. Yes Russia has been invaded many times but so has just about every country in Europe. What about the invasions of Europe by the Muslims? Read about the Muslim invasion of Spain and France in the 8th Century and in invasions to the east that were finally stopped in Vienna in 1683.
You will have to explain to me what you mean by “compellence” as you have stated. We lived under the policy of MAD for nearly 50 years. The US had a monopoly on nuclear weapons for 5 years and didn't choose to use them them. There is a giant difference between a shield to protect Europe (and possibly Russia as well) from countries in the Middle East who may eventually get nuclear weapons and the systems to deliver them . This is why Russia was invited into the alliance for these shields as a full partner and they declined. So we don't take seriously the threat from the Islamic World? Honestly!
I don't know who this crackpot professor Francis Boyle is but his claim of a first strike policy against Russia is BEYOND ludicrous. This is so absurd as it doesn't even warrant a response. The US would never have a first strike policy against Russia. Never has! Absolute idiocy by this Boyle fellow.
We have made many overtures towards working with the Russians. It is they who have refused to work constructively with the West (United States). Yes we have have extended NATO to countries that were in the former Warsaw Pact. This is for the benefit of those countries who had to suffer from Soviet occupation for nearly 50 years. Do I need to mention Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States and so on!
So many of us in the United States do not take the threat of the Islamic World seriously? Well on this one you are partially correct. Those on the left do not take this threat seriously. They have the Neville Chamberlain disease. There is no known cure. They are beyond hope. However most Americans do take this threat seriously particularly after 9/11. And if the Russians take seriously the threat why do they keep selling arms to the countries that they would supposedly fear? You know your post is is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.
satire? please say it is... because if true, then the Russians must be drinking tainted vodka. this makes no sense.
They’re responding to a defensive system aimed at protecting Western allies and the U.S. from an inter-continental offensive weapons by proposing putting an offensive weapon within striking distance of the U.S.?
Unless of course maybe the Russians are proposing to use their bombers to intercept incoming ballistic warheads heading for the U.S. If that’s the case, we won’t need a missile defense system... /sarc
It isn’t the aircraft you have to worry about, but the nuclear tipped air launched cruise missiles that they carry. They don’t have to go anywhere near U.S. airspace to launch them. Russia’s strategic bombers and their ALCMs are taken extremely seriously by U.S and NATO forces. Consider the reverse with USAF B-52s launching stand off ALCMs attacks against the Russian air defense system? Same problem and same headache for any air defense system. The Russians have the longest ranged ALCMs.
I suspect this is a plant story just to shake stuff up.
Bush has made it clear to the Cuban people on several occasions we would “help” them should they want to unshackle the chains of communism. So far not much has happened.
Thats ok russia we already reactivated the 4th fleet waiting on you guys and your buddies chavez and castro.Not to mention we have F-22s,F-15,and F-16’s in Florida. Get some.
Don’t be such a nimrod like some Russophobes here.
You play right into the hands of the leftist neo-globalists.
After all its the age of Saggitarius, and all we are supposed to do is listen to Al Gorp and give each other STDs to reduce our infestation of the earth as humans.
The Carribean is about to become an extended version of the Spratly Islands (off the Philipines.) The Chinese have a plan, and the Russians are playing catch up while the MSM Obamarizes the populace.
We need heavy Naval presence in the Carribean, and in the Med off Israel( The Russians are opening their old Navy base in Libya).We need to build war ships, a lot of them for both the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters.
God help us if Obama is elected.
Venezuela.
I can assure you, one thing the Russians are NOT, is morons.
“However most Americans do take this threat seriously particularly after 9/11.”
If that is the case, why is B. Hussein Obama so close to being president of the United States?
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