Russians may land long-range bombers in Venezuela, Cuba

The Russian military has reached a contingency agreement to land long-range supersonic bomber aircraft in Venezuela, according to reports from Moscow on Saturday, which analysts cast as a nuisance rather than reason for alarm.

U.S. Defense and diplomatic officials told The Miami Herald they were aware of the report by the at-times unreliable InterFax agency but downplayed its significance.

''Our analysts weren't caught unaware and don't believe this is anything alarming,'' said Army Col. Bill Costello, spokesman for the Pentagon's Southern Command.

There was no immediate reaction from the Venezuelan government.

InterFax quoted a Russian Air Force chief, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, as saying that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had offered an island off the country's Caribbean coast as a support base for strategic Russian bombers.

Zhikharev also was quoted as saying that Soviet-era ally Cuba could be used to base the aircraft, too.

'A WHOLE ISLAND'

InterFax said Chávez had offered ''a whole island'' with an airfield that ''we can use as a temporary base for strategic bombers'' -- an apparent reference to La Orchila, home to Antonio Diaz Naval Air Station, off the north-central coast.

La Orchila is Venezuela's version of Camp David, a presidential retreat used by Chávez for summits and at-times clandestine meetings. The president also was detained there, briefly, during his 2002 ouster.

While the report broke Saturday, La Orchila has been the focus of Russian interest for some time.

Venezuelan media reported in November that, while President Dmitry Medvedev toured Latin America, Russian military inspected the island's airstrip.

The two nations' navies were engaging in joint exercises at the time, a reflection of a Russian military push into the region in recent years -- mainly to sell military hardware. But U.S. officials said at the time that they were more concerned about Iran's activities in the region than Russia's.

HITTING 'RESET BUTTON'

Analysts also noted the timing of Saturday's report: the United States and Russia are vying for influence in Latin America, even as the Obama administration has said it is seeking to hit the ''reset button'' on relations with the Kremlin.

InterFax quoted the Russian general as earlier saying that Cuba, too, has air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers that could host the long-range planes.

But Alexei Pavlov, a Kremlin official, told The Associated Press that ''the military is speaking about technical possibilities, that's all. If there will be a development of the situation, then we can comment,'' he said.

Defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.Org said Saturday he had no independent basis to confirm it but thought the base agreement was plausible.

''The Russians have resumed bomber and maritime reconnaissance patrols, and in the old days,