My latest in FrontPage:
On September 10, a pair of Russian Tu-160 “Blackjack” bombers landed in Venezuela with the purpose of patrolling the neutral waters over the Caribbean and the Pacific. The planes are designed to carry nuclear weapons, and the Russian air force at first confirmed and then denied that the bombers were armed with nuclear missiles. This November, Putin and Chavez will hold joint military exercises in which the Russian missile cruiser Peter the Great and the anti-submarine vessel Admiral Shabanenko will join two additional vessels and a unit of long-range patrol aircraft for training with the Venezuelan military.
These troubling developments, marking the first Russian military foray into Latin America since the Cold War, are meant to signal to the U.S. that Russia counts a number of Western hemisphere nations among its allies.
