MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Russian bombers land in Venezuela for exercise

Two Russian strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of military exercises, an unprecedented deployment to the territory of a new ally at a time of increasingly tense relations with United States

The alliance said the four ships ? US frigate USS Taylor and three similar vessels from Spain, Germany and Poland ? were moving back to the Mediterranean Sea after the 18-day mission. In Moscow, Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky refused to say how long the Venezuela deployment will last or say whether the planes carried any weapons. Russia revealed that NATO fighters escorted the two Russian bombers on their way to Venezuela. The apparently retaliatory move follows the US deployment of warships to deliver aid to the former Soviet nation of Georgia, barely a month after Russian armor and aircraft crushed the Georgian military in a five-day war. Earlier this week Venezuela announced Russia would be sending a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes in November for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean. Relations between the US and Russia have been badly strained by the short war last month between Russia and US allied Georgia. Venezuela supported Russia's actions which were to help liberate and ensure peace in the Georgia enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia later recognized the independence of both Georgian separatist regions.