The muscles are pumped up. It's time for long arms
Recent events, namely: NATO's advance to the East, the further transformation of Ukraine into an anti-Russian battering ram under the strict leadership of the United States, the US withdrawal from the treaty process on Syria and air attacks by the US Air Force on Syrian government troops and civilians, direct threats from the State Department to start a terrorist war in Russia, force the leadership of the Russian Federation to remember Soviet practice and urgently acquire naval and air force bases abroad.
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Since the Syrian direction is currently a priority and will remain so for many years, the military and political leadership of the country made a decision to permanently and free of charge deploy two military bases in Syria - the Khmeimim air force and the Tartus naval base. Khmeimim today is already a well-equipped modern Russian Aerospace Forces base, reinforced with modern S-400 and Pantsir air defense systems, but recently it became known that the Khmeimim base will be retrofitted to host heavy bombers and missile carriers. One can only imagine the indignation and hysteria caused by this news among Western “partners”.
Until recently, Tartus was not a naval base, but only a logistics support point for the Russian Navy. And, with the exception of the Russian military guarding the facility, the logistics center is staffed by civilian personnel. The Russian Ministry of Defense recently reported that Tartus has also been reinforced with a battery of S-300 air defense systems against sudden attacks by uninvited UFOs, and is now additionally preparing to accept anti-submarine weapons and undergo conversion to the level of a naval base. Almost all issues have been discussed with the Syrian side and now the Federation Council will have to approve and ratify the rights of the Russian Federation to use these facilities in Syria in the interests of the Ministry of Defense.
In addition, quite painstaking work lies ahead, designed, together with the Syrian side, to settle the legal status of Russian military personnel, their jurisdiction, distribution of responsibility and financing. In a word, everything that usually remains outside the scope of reports from the battlefields.
The expansion of the influence of Russian military power beyond its external borders has long been in the air and has become timely. VVB Khmeimim and Naval Base Tartus are helping to solve Russia’s main military task today - the defeat of the terrorist caliphate of ISIS, the al-Nusra Front and other “moderate” and not so thugs.
For the future, Russia should protect itself from other directions by putting forward appropriate outposts.
Last week, the media literally exploded with reports that Moscow is working with individual countries on the possibility of leasing former Soviet military facilities on their territory.
A number of sources report that Russian officials are already negotiating in Cairo about the restoration and lease of a former Soviet naval base near the city of Sidi Barrani.
It is interesting that the Egyptian naval base was practically forgotten even during the Soviet era, since the base was closed in 1972, as soon as the pro-American government came to power in Egypt. The main task of the base was to monitor the American fleet in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.
Judging by media publications, negotiations with the Egyptian side are going well. Moscow and Cairo allegedly agreed that Russia would deliver all the necessary equipment to the base by sea, and the Russian military would be stationed at the base itself. Official sources do not confirm the fact of negotiations and plans to revive the Russian Navy base in Egypt. And it would be strange to open a naval base in a country struck by instability since the beginning of the Arab Spring.
And, it is not at all surprising that the topic of discussion of Russian military bases touched upon the issues of resuming the activities of the electronic intelligence center in Cuba and the Air Force Base + Naval Base in Cam Ranh, Vietnam.
The Lourdes radar station began operating in 1967 and since then has been an eyesore, a stone in the bile duct, and a pain in the ass for all American administrations and intelligence agencies, until it ceased operations in the early 250s. In fact, the USSR had its own Echelon system, just 75 km from the United States, intercepting all ordinary and classified communications via telecommunications. According to some reports, the center in Lourdes supplied the Soviet intelligence services with at least XNUMX% of intelligence information about North America.
The reason for closing the station was very prosaic. No "drain". It’s just that during the 10 years of activity of Yeltsin’s “young reformers,” the station’s electronic components became hopelessly outdated, and there was no money in the treasury for its modernization. As a result, the efficiency of the center has seriously decreased.
Today, the issue of reviving the electronic intelligence center in Lourdes seems controversial, since technology and communications have advanced greatly. For example, the NSA's electronic intelligence center in Texas is far from Russian or Chinese borders, but receives up-to-date information from the World Wide Web and from spy satellites that monitor cellular and other digital communications channels. But to organize a defensive site for Russian missile defense systems in Cuba, explaining their presence to the Americans in their own proprietary style - for example, the vital need to build an “umbrella” against the missile attack of ISIS and Latin American drug lords - this will be both a strong move and a good trolling of the American establishment, that’s all. still flattering himself with hopes of sitting overseas in the event of a military conflict in Europe.
As for the resumption of the Russian military presence at the Cam Ranh base, this direction has been actively developed by Moscow over the past few years. In November 2013, during presidential negotiations, the Russian and Vietnamese sides signed an agreement to create a joint base for the repair and maintenance of submarines. Apparently, the matter will not be limited to the repair base. It makes sense to expand the functions of the Cam Ranh base to a naval base at a minimum, since we are talking about the Russian military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, which is critically important for the United States and many other countries, where the center of gravity of world trade, capital and scientific and technical research is rapidly shifting.
The media are discussing the possibility of opening two more Russian military bases - in Argentina and Nicaragua. But, for a number of reasons, there is no real possibility for such a step at the moment. Cristina Kirchner, who until recently served as President of Argentina, was interested in the Russian military base as a compelling argument in the territorial dispute with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). With the departure of Christina Kirchner, Russia does not have such a strong position in Argentina, and it will not be possible to reliably cling to the Russian naval base in those parts. Although, interesting prospects for controlling the Drake Passage could open up for Russia.
The Russian Aerospace Forces base in Nicaragua does not make sense due to the complexity of delivering fuel and lubricants and materiel. On top of that, there is a non-zero probability that Russia’s military bases in Latam will cause a crisis in the United States comparable to that in Berlin or the Caribbean. Building military bases in places where the United States and its allies can easily block them is, to say the least, unwise.
Thus, the list of Russian outposts is Khmeimim, Tartus, Sidi Barrani, Cam Ranh. Perhaps Lourdes.
Apart from the Yeltsin period, since the early 2000s Russia has closed the Lourdes and Cam Ranh bases as a gesture of goodwill.
The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 gave hope for the sanity of the American establishment, which was faced with the full problem of international terrorism already operating in the United States. Russia thereby extended its hand and offered to bury the hatchet, turning its forces against a common enemy. But, accepting Russian help in the fight against terror, the United States took it for granted, and was in no hurry to return good for good. The actions of our “partners” in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine have shown that their position is extremely selfish and they consider goodwill to be a weakness.
In recent years, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have gathered their strength, renewed themselves, modernized and once again emerged as leaders. Russia has pumped up its muscles. Now is the time to move to the distant approaches.
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