Russian bomb deployment reports deemed ‘speculative’

Chicago Tribune

Published Sunday, July 27, 2008

MOSCOW - If true, the news would have been nerve-rattling indeed.

A Russian state-controlled newspaper, Izvestia, reported a few weeks ago that Russia was thinking about deploying long-range bombers in Cuba. The paper followed up that report with another Thursday claiming Russia had already dispatched strategic bomber crews to conduct reconnaissance work.

Other Russian media scurried to get analyses from retired Russian generals who weighed the pros and cons of such a deployment - possibly as part of Russia’s angry reaction to U.S. plans to establish a missile defense system just west of Russia, in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Even Fidel Castro had something to say, commenting cryptically that, "You need nerves of steel in these times of genocide, and Cuba has them."

The trouble with the tempest the reports stirred up is that there is nothing concrete to show they’re true. Both stories were based solely on unnamed sources. Moreover, the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday dismissed the reports as false.

The stories might simply be an attempt at sending shock waves through Washington, D.C. by using claims that would evoke memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, which brought Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war.

Moscow remains steadfast in its opposition to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, and recently the Kremlin has warned it could respond militarily if the system were deployed.

Washington has been careful in its response, regarding the reports as "speculative."