Russia-Venezuela drills set

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia

A Russian fleet sailing toward the Caribbean for military exercises with Venezuela’s navy next month reflects a chill in Russia-U.S. relations, though analysts are divided on whether the drill represents a threat to U.S. interests or is merely a demonstration to embarrass Washington.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says the drill seals Venezuela’s “strategic alliance with Russia,” which he announced during a recent visit to Moscow, in which he signed billions of dollars worth of arms deals.

The exercises, led by flagship Peter the Great, will mark Russia’s largest naval deployment to the Caribbean in more than 20 years.

Like Cuba’s Fidel Castro, much of Mr. Chavez’s political career has been based on his opposition to the United States.

On Russia’s end, many analysts see the move as a face-saving payback for U.S. naval deployments around the Black Sea to show support for Georgia in its conflict with Moscow that led to a brief war in August.

U.S. Navy ships were used to bring food, medicine and other relief supplies to Georgia while keeping their distance from the Russian fleet.

Still, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would respond to the deployment in an unspecified manner and with “calm.”

U.S. officials have dismissed the Russian maneuvers as insignificant.

“I’ve once said that the old Russian ships could not make it that far down to Venezuela. And I had seen one report where I think they were actually being accompanied by tugboats,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack shortly after the Caribbean exercises were announced last month.

Many analysts dismiss the exercises as a show of one-upmanship.

“This is a case of naval diplomacy, rather than a demonstration of capability,” said Jason Alderwick of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. “It’s all about strutting your stuff and [thumbing their nose] at the West.”

But the vast array of high-tech firepower reported to be on board the Peter the Great “is no laughing matter,” said Dee Dubroff, a chief analyst with Russian Innovations, a newsletter specializing in monitoring Russia’s growing defense industry.

Peter the Great belongs to a new generation of Kirov-class missile cruisers, which was commissioned in 1995.

It is armed with 20 long-range Granit anti-ship missiles, which can be tipped with 500-kiloton nuclear warheads and fired in a volley with devastating effect on surface targets.

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