September 9, 2008 Russia to deploy ships, planes to Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Russia's plan to deploy ships and warplanes to the Caribbean for joint military exercises with Venezuela is allowing President Hugo Chavez to capitalize on tensions between Moscow and the U.S. and showcase a growing military alliance.

Russia announced on Monday that it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes for the exercises later this year - a move that appeared retaliatory after the U.S. sent warships to deliver aid to Georgia following its conflict with Russia.

The deployment is expected to be the largest Russian naval maneuvers in the Caribbean - and perhaps the Western Hemisphere - since the Cold War.

Chavez considers the U.S. a defense threat, and his welcoming of the Russian navy contrasted with his sharp criticism of the recent reactivation of the U.S. Navy's Fourth Fleet for the Caribbean and Latin America. He ridiculed possible U.S. concerns about the Russian deployment on Sunday, saying: "Go ahead and squeal, Yankees."

"This is vintage Chavez. He rarely misses an opportunity to needle and provoke Washington," said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue. "He is taking advantage of the growing chill in U.S.-Russia relations, especially over the situation in Georgia, to poke his finger in (President) Bush's eye. There is nothing he relishes more."

Chavez says the U.S. Fourth Fleet - which was dissolved after World War II - poses a threat to the

Anna Gilmour, an analyst at Jane's Intelligence Review, said she believes the exercises will be primarily for the benefit of Venezuela, which has been drawing closer to Russia and buying weapons from Kalashnikov assault rifles to Sukhoi fighter jets. She said the maneuvers also appear to be a response to the relaunch of the U.S. Fourth Fleet.

"By allowing Russian vessels to dock at Venezuelan ports, Chavez is sending the message that the U.S. is not the only major power active in the Caribbean," Gilmour said.

The U.S. government, however, appeared unconcerned.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack poked fun at Russia's navy, saying if Russia really intends to send ships to the Caribbean, "then they found a few ships that can make it that far."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko insisted that Russia's decision to send a naval squadron and planes to Venezuela was made before Russia's war with Georgia and is unrelated to the conflict.

But last week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would mount an unspecified response to recent U.S. aid shipments to Georgia using Navy vessels on the Black Sea.

Shifter said it's clear Russia in "unhappy about the U.S.'s increasing presence in the Black Sea" and "as part of its resurgent nationalism, Russia wants to flex its muscles and remind Washington that it too has important alliances in the U.S. backyard." --- Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Lolita Baldor in Washington and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)