Cuba and Venezuala 'may host Russian bombers'
A Russian Air Force chief said today that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had offered an island as a temporary base for strategic Russian bombers, the Interfax news agency reported.
The chief of staff of Russia’s long range aviation, Maj Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, also said Cuba could be used to base the aircraft, Interfax reported.
Zhikharev said Chavez had offered “a whole island with an airdrome, which we can use as a temporary base for strategic bombers,” the agency reported.
“If there is a corresponding political decision, then the use of the island ... by the Russian Air Force is possible.”
Interfax reported he said earlier that Cuba had air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers and could be used to host the long-range planes.
Two Russian bombers landed in Venezuela last year in what experts said was the first western hemisphere touchdown of Russian military craft since the end of the Cold War.
Cuba has never permanently hosted Russian or Soviet strategic aircraft. But Soviet short-range bombers often made stopovers there during the Cold War.
Russia resumed long-range bomber patrols in 2007 after a 15-year hiatus.
