Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

“The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy, said. He declined to comment on Russian newspaper reports that nuclear submarines were also part of the expedition.

The voyage to join the Venezuelan Navy for manoeuvres came only days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers made their first visit to the country. Hugo Chávez, the President, said then that the arrival of the strike force was a warning to the US. The vehemently antiAmerican Venezuelan leader is due to visit Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow this week as part of a tour that includes visits to Cuba and China.

Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and up to 500 surface-to-air missiles, making it one of the most formidable warships in the world. The Kremlin has courted Venezuela and Cuba as tensions with the West soared over the proposed US missile shield in Eastern Europe and the Russian invasion of Georgia last month. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said recently that Russia should “restore its position in Cuba” – the nation where deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in 1962 brought Russia and the United States to the brink of nuclear war.
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Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister, made clear that Russia would challenge the US for influence in Latin America after visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba last week. He said: “It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to this zone.”

Moscow was infuriated when Washington sent US warships into the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia after the war. Analysts said that the Kremlin was engaging in gunboat diplomacy over the encroachment of Nato into the former Soviet satellites of Georgia and Ukraine.

Pavel Felgengauer, a leading Russian defence expert, told The Times: “It’s to show the flag and the finger to the United States. They are offering a sort of gangland deal – if you get into our territory, then we will get into yours. You leave Georgia and Ukraine to us and we won’t go into the Caribbean, OK?” He described the visit as “first and foremost a propaganda deployment”, pointing out that one of the support vessels was a tug in case either of the warships broke down.

Latin America was one of the arenas of the Cold War in which the US and the Soviet Union battled for ideological dominance. Russia has agreed to sell more than $4 billion (£2 billion) worth of armaments to Venezuela since 2005 and disclosed last week that Mr Chávez wanted new antiaircraft systems and more fighter jets.

Mr Dygalo denied any link with Georgia and said that Mr Chávez and Mr Medvedev had agreed on the exercises in July.

do you really have to make a new topic for every news story V_V

I'm bored.

And these are important.

And these are interesting.

And they are leading to a unpromising future.

And I have nothing else to do.

And I'm at work

And some people may not find out about this.

And I'm the Redcell News Reporter.

And It's Russia.

And this could lead to war.

And we're probably all going to die.

And I think this is a HUGE step for upcoming events.

And that's a lot of and's...

You now put America in "and" debt

Is this some kind of sophisticated pun?

And Hunter, c'mon, just make one topic and update it :/

Tell Nokill to give me my own section.

Or not

small question, who is reading your 10 pages long text?

Hopefully you people...Ill just go back into my hole and stop posting all together.

Just to let you know, in the next month, if the stuff I have researched and not posted here comes to truth, the US will no longer be sovereign...

Anyway good luck with the clan maybe I'll stop by again if I feel like it.

dont understand me false hunter, but we are a gaming clan, with members who are mostly under 18...we are more interessted in alcohol, girls or gaming :S but not for any political news...

I read it -- it only takes two minutes, literally.

Shame shame at the ignorance that our youth has bestowed only upon themselves to take apathy into such a wide consideration that they dont realize they themselves, at least the US people, are in danger and at risk of this terror to the states. I think having the US no longer be soverign would be a horrid thing, imo, because it is. And if it does happen, then at least you knew about it. And since you know about it, if need be, you can do somethng about it. C'mon. "Knowledge is power". Keep posting, Hunter. Ill be your #1 fan of these. =]

lol. Hunter when i saw your picture on dropbox i would not expect you to say that

first of all, im not american, and im reading newspapers every day in germany...watching news and documentary reports
im not interessted in the feelings of american ppl..i have only ask rhk: are you ok bitch?; rhk: you are a bitch; then i can see, america is allright...
thirteen, you are one from the less ppl in this forum who is reading that.

you, status, flip and maybe sonsi...of about 50 member

dont understand me false hunter, i read some of your article, but i have not everytime the time to read them :O

i think, you should get an own section, political section or news section or something like that

I once proposed a section such like you stated, to Nokill, but he said he'd much prefer us to go to a different website than the forum to get our news... Hope his opinion has changed.

Virus, you can just simply not enter the thread if your going to just put negative shit into it otherwise contribute.

Ye, I guess these threads would go out of the offtopic section where a considerate amount of people who enjoy these kind of topics can post and shit alike with a different section. You'd have to see Nokill's current position of where he stands on this proposition from the last time me and him talked.

<3 Ye, kids should realize shit like this is important as it affects them... even though going into the city with a couple mates, weed and some girls is pretty good but I mean... most of the people here don't do shit but troll these forums.