‘Russia may base planes in Cuba’

BY VINAY SHUKLA

Moscow

July 21: Russian nuclear weapons-armed strategic bombers could return to Cuba in response to the US plans to deploy its national missile defence shield (NMD) in Central and Eastern Europe, a media report said on Monday.

"While they are deploying the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, our strategic bombers will be landing in Cuba," a highly placed Russian Air Force source was quoted as saying by Izvestia daily.

After a lull of almost 15 years, Russian Air Force is back on regular patrolling missions of the remote seas and oceans since 2007 by its nuclear missiles carrier strategic bombers Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO codename Blackjack) and T-95 (Bear).

Earlier in July after the signing of the US-Czech deal on the deployment of missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to rebuff the US shield, which Moscow sees as a threat to its retaliatory second strike capability, in the event of pre-emptive US nuclear strike.

In a strong-worded statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry had declared that Moscow will take "military-technical" steps in response to the US missile shield, claimed to be aimed at protection from the missiles of "rouge" countries like Iran and North Korea. President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, General (Retd) Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian defence ministry’s department for international cooperation, told Izvestia that Cuba could be used as a refuelling stopover for Russian strategic bombers rather than as a permanent base.

—PTI