Russia Plans Joint Military Drills With North Korea and Cuba

Russia Plans Joint Military Drills With North Korea and Cuba
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV 2/2/15 AT 6:39 PM

Russia could soon be carrying out military drills alongside North Korea
and Cuba according to Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of the
Russian armed forces.

Speaking at a meeting on Saturday which was also attended by Russia's
defence minister Sergey Shoygu, along with the heads of all armed forces
branches, Gerasimov announced: "We are planning an expansion of the
communication lines of our military central command. We are entering
preliminary negotiations with the armed forces of Brazil, Vietnam, Cuba
and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

"We are going to conduct a series of joint naval and air force
exercises, as well as joint drills of our ground troops and air assault
troops," the military official added.

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According to the former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine Steven Pifer,
Russia is developing these potential military partnerships as a response
to its current international isolation. Due to its involvement in the
Ukrainian conflict, the U.S. and EU have both imposed sanctions on the
country and certain Russian individuals, and the country was suspended
from the G8 last March.

"The Russian military may be reaching out to other countries as part of
Moscow's effort to show that it is not isolated, despite the very
negative international reaction to Russian aggression against Ukraine,"
Pifer says.

However Pifer, who also served as special assistant to president Bill
Clinton on Russia and Eurasia, does not believe Russia's attempts to
embark on new military partnerships will develop further: "I'd be
astonished to see Russian and North Korean troops training together,"
Pifer says.

"As for Cuba, Moscow has a long history there. My guess is that part of
the Russian interest is tit-for-tat: they are unhappy with U.S/ military
cooperation with the Baltic states and other countries, such as Georgia,
that are close to them, so they hope to tweak the United States by
upping their engagement in Cuba."

However, according to Pifer a Russian partnership with Cuba may also be
unlikely due to the recent thawing of relations between Havana and the U.S..

Last week Russian president Vladimir Putin told military officials in
Moscow that he would like to expand Russia's role in the arms trade
across the Far East and Latin America.

Source: Russia Plans Joint Military Drills With North Korea and Cuba -
http://www.newsweek.com/russia-plans-joint-military-drills-north-korea-and-cuba-303836