Venezuela is ready for the closest military cooperation with Russia in the event of a conflict with NATO and in a confrontation with the United States over Ukraine. This was stated by Venezuelan President Maduro at a briefing after negotiations with the Russian delegation headed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, writes Olga Bozheva in the material for the electronic edition "MK.ru ". Can Russia, after such a statement by Madura, place its military base in Venezuela? And do we need it? This question was asked by MK to the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (TSAST) Ruslan Pukhov.
(c) Reuters / Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
"It is certainly nice to hear such a statement from the head of state, which shows that there are countries in the world that sympathize with us and support us in matters of our foreign policy," the expert said. - But, to be honest, it reminds me a lot of the story of 1904. When the Russian-Japanese War broke out, little Montenegro, which at that time was an independent state, declared war on Japan out of solidarity, although it did not even have its own fleet. A trifle, but nice. But it didn't make any practical sense. Just as it is not in Maduro's proposal now.
According to Ruslan Pukhov, the possibility of deploying a Russian military base on the territory of Venezuela will be a step towards a stronger confrontation with the United States and will not add arguments to Russia in the negotiation process on "red lines".
- If we imagine that we will actually start some hostile actions from the territory of Venezuela towards the United States, then we should remember that they have thousands of opportunities to stop these actions. In this case, neither we nor the Venezuelans will do well, because Ukraine for Americans is a place of third-rate interests, and the soft underbelly - neighboring Colombia and Venezuela - is a completely different matter.
You have to be careful with the games here. I don't think that any of our long-range weapons should be placed there, which would be scary to the Americans. It is another matter - and this is not denied by anyone - when, for example, Iran actively uses the territory of Venezuela for its operations against the United States.
Accordingly, if we still do not have some kind of intelligence structure there, then we could increase it. But it would be impractical to install any shock systems there. This will not strengthen our security, but on the contrary, it will provoke the Americans to some tough retaliatory actions. In addition, we should not forget that Maduro will require money for all this. And, apparently, a lot, since Venezuela is in a very difficult economic situation. Whether we need all this is a big question.
