Russia’s nuclear bomber force has come into repeated contact with Nato jets since Mr Putin ordered the resumption of long-range patrols. Russia also organised its biggest naval exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union in January.
The Russian military, furious at American plans to install a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, is talking up the prospect of turning Cuba into a base for its long-range nuclear bombers.
Defence chiefs in Moscow are said to be pressing for the Kremlin to retaliate against the missile shield by placing strategic bombers off the American coast. The move threatens a rerun of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin strongly opposes the deployment of ten interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, despite American assurances that the shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran and poses no threat to Russia. President Medvedev threatened “retaliatory steps” at the G8 summit this month after Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, sealed an agreement with the Czech Republic. The Foreign Ministry said that Russia would react “with military-technical methods”.
Yesterday Izvestia cited Defence Ministry sources as saying that crews from its TU160 Blackjack and TU95MS Bear long-range bombers had already visited Cuba to inspect a potential landing strip for use as a refuelling centre
EDITOR”S NOTE: The US should have long ago entered into an alliance with Russia to fight the Middle Eastern terrorists, of whom they know only too well.