Pat Dollard

Tweet

The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus.

Bastards…YO! Vagasmear Putin? What part of “If your not with us, your against us” do you not understand?. The USSR is playing right into the hands of Iran.

September 14, 2008,
(AP)

Beirut: Russia announced on Friday it was renovating a Syrian port for use by the Russian fleet in what signals an effort for a better foothold in the Mediterranean amid the rift with the United States over Georgia.

Syria was Moscow’s strongest Middle East ally during the Cold War. The alliance largely waned after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Russia has continued some weapons sales to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has increasingly reached out to Russia recently, including seeking weapons and offering broader military cooperation.

Friday’s announcement was the first tangible sign of any new cooperation. The Itar-Tass news agency said on Friday that a vessel from Russia’s Black Sea fleet had begun restoring facilities at Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus for use by the Russian military.

The two countries’ naval chiefs also met in Moscow on Friday and discussed “further strengthening mutual trust and mutual understanding between the two states’ fleets,” a Russian naval official, Igor Dygalo, told Itar-Tass.

In August, Russia’s ambassador to Damascus, Igor Belyev, said that Russian ships already patrol the area, but “a new development is that the Russian presence in the Mediterranean will become permanent.”

War of words: US shield ‘star wars’

The US missile shield plan in Europe is the earthly version of Stars Wars to restrain Russia, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

He made the remarks in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.