E-Paper
Russian warning to US
Russia may soon respond to US plans to deploy a European anti-missile shield by basing its own strategic bombers in South America and North Africa, reports Fred Weir.
Russia may soon respond to US plans to deploy a European anti-missile shield by basing its own strategic bombers in South America and North Africa, the daily Izvestia quoted top Russian military sources as saying on Thursday.
Russian military experts have surveyed a former Soviet airfield in Cuba for possible future use by Russian Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear bombers as a forward operating base and refuelling station, Izvestia said. Other sites in Venezuela and Algeria are also under consideration, the paper said, and the plans only await a “political decision” by the Kremlin to be activated.
President Dmitri Medvedev has warned Russia will "retaliate" over a recently signed deal to place US-controlled radars in the Czech Republic, and a plan to station anti-missile interceptors in Poland.
