James Myers of OAN
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 1:47 PM
A Russian warship has finally arrived in Havana, in a visit intended as a show of force amid rising tensions with the West over Russia’s support for Ukraine.
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Four ships, including the nuclear submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, entered Cuba’s Havana Bay early Wednesday morning.
The flagship frigate, flying the Russian and Cuban flags, was greeted with a 21-gun salute and uniformed sailors stood in military formation as it approached land.
The U.S. military said several Russian naval and support vessels were expected to take part in the exercises, which could also stop in Venezuela.
US officials also said they were “closely monitoring” the visit, and the US Navy used a maritime drone to track the Russian ships as they approached Cuba, the spokesman said. CBS News.
Russia is a longtime ally of Venezuela and Cuba and its warships and aircraft regularly visit the Caribbean, but the operation came less than two weeks after President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to attack Russian soil to defend Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested his country’s military could respond with “asymmetric measures” elsewhere in the world.
“Above all, this warship is a reminder to Washington that it is uncomfortable for its enemies to meddle in its neighbors’ affairs,” Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank, said of Western involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine. “It also reminds Russia’s friends in the region, such as Cuba and Venezuela, which are U.S. adversaries, that Moscow is on their side.”
The visit was announced last week by Cuban officials, who said such visits by friendly nations were standard practice and that the Kazan did not carry nuclear weapons or pose a threat to the region.
Havana is just 100 miles from Key West, Florida, and the timing of the visit suggests it was more than “standard practice,” according to William LeoGrande, a professor at American University.
“The visit of the Russian warships is Putin’s way of reminding Biden that Moscow can challenge Washington in its own sphere of influence,” LeoGrande said. AP news.
The timing of these exercises has also raised questions about whether the Venezuelan government might use this as an opportunity to seek a third term for President Nicolas Maduro in the July 28 elections.Number election.
“It’s almost inconceivable that Maduro would actually risk losing power,” said Evan Ellis, a professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College.
“The most obvious alternative, consistent with the Venezuelan military’s recent actions, would be to manufacture an international crisis as a pretext to ‘postpone’ Venezuela’s elections,” he continued. “The presence of Russian warships in the area would significantly increase the risk of escalating such a crisis as Maduro would manufacture, which is likely the aim.”
U.S. officials said they were aware of the visit but did not believe it posed a threat to the United States at this time, and that their understanding was that the nuclear submarine did not carry nuclear weapons.
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