During the recent war, the Russian Black Sea Fleet successfully carried out several operations, including the delivery of troops to an Abkhaz port, the destruction of Georgian ships, and the blockade of Georgian ports. In the weeks since the war ended, NATO has deployed substantial capabilities to the Black Sea, including American, German, and Spanish warships. Along with the Turkish, Rumanian, and Bulgarian ships already present, this deployment has served to give NATO overwhelming preponderance over Russian forces in the area.
So what is Russia to do? The answer, apparently, is to send the Navy to Venezuela. Reports are a bit sketchy at this point, but the plan seems to be for several (four surface ships, possibly with two submarines) to make a port call in Venezuela in mid-November, and to carry out maneuvers with the Venezuelan Navy. The flagship of the Russian task force, according to one source, will be the nuclear-powered battlecruiser RFS Pyotr Velikiy. Pyotr Velikiy is most memorable for an incident four years ago in which a Russian Navy admiral declared her liable "to explode at any moment."
Explosive nuclear battlecruisers aside, this seems to indicate that the Russians are not intending to pursue a strategy of quick reconciliation with the United States in the wake of the Georgia-Russia conflict. Rather, the Russians seem to be taking steps calculated to irritate the U.S., even in parts of the world where Russia has no strategic interest. I find this quite odd; Russia got what it wanted out of the war, and should at this point be in consolidation mode.
--Robert Farley
