Russia's next attempt to reassert itself ?

By Charlie

First its satellites with Georgia, now in Latin America? A great column at the WSJ pokes some holes in this:

As two Russian Tu-160 bombers landed in Venezuela last week on a training mission, President Hugo Chávez took to his nation's airwaves to celebrate. It was the first time since the Cold War that military jets sent from Moscow touched down in the Western Hemisphere. "Yankee hegemony is finished," Mr. Chávez declared.
What the Venezuelan did not mention was the fact that, according to a State Department official, "the U.S. Air Force picked up the Russian aircraft just west of Norway and escorted them all the way to Venezuela."

That American top guns could toy with Russians sent to show solidarity with Venezuela is not surprising. Vladimir Putin has been trying to rebuild his military, but it is no match for U.S. might. Nor is it believable that Russia seriously expects to challenge the U.S. in the Caribbean with the flotilla it says that it is sending next month for joint exercises with Venezuela.

Despite the recent policy drift in Latin America, will Russian military exercises really answer the fundamental economic problems and security concerns in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba? This may have gone over during the cold war, but I'm not sure how it will play in 2008.

September 16, 2008 03:39 PM Russia