It sounds like that international crisis he promised may already be on its way:
A Russian navy task force will sail into Venezuela tomorrow as President Medvedev undertakes a tour of Latin America to challenge the dominance of the United States. The nuclear-powered Peter the Great, one of Russia’s largest warships, and the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabenenko are due to dock at La Guaira port before wargames in the Caribbean with the Venezuelan Navy. It is the first Russian naval mission to Latin America since the end of the Cold War. The ships’ arrival comes a day before Mr Medvedev visits Venezuela to seal an agreement on strategic energy co-operation with the regime of President Chavez. The Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom will lead a consortium of the country’s largest oil and gas companies in a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela. Sergei Shmatko, Russia’s Energy Minister, said that the consortium, which plans to invest billions of dollars, would become an oil and gas leader in Latin America.
From there, Medvedev will travel to Cuba:
Mr Medvedev is due to arrive in Venezuela from Brazil and will travel on to Cuba, scene of the 1962 nuclear missile crisis. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said in August that Russia should “restore its position in Cuba” amid speculation that it may seek to open a military base on the island as a response to the US missile defence shield in eastern Europe. Mr Putin renewed his attack on the missile shield yesterday, telling a human rights conference in St Petersburg: “This project is aimed against the strategic potential of Russia. And we can only give it an adequate response.”
Is Medvedev bluffing, or is Russia genuinely seeking to precipitate a foreign policy crisis with the new president? More likely he’s just trying to scare Barack Obama into reneging on our commitments to our East European allies, as Obama is apparently contemplating doing already. HT: Patriot Room.
