Russian-Venezuelan naval exercises

The Northern Fleet’s flagship, the nuclear-powered missile cruiser “Pyotr Veliky” (Peter the Great) has entered Venezuelan waters outside Caracas for joint drills with the Venezuelan Navy in Venezuelan and international waters. The anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko and support vessels from the Northern Fleet are also taking part in the maneuvers. It is reportedly the first deployment of Russian warships to the Western Hemisphere since the end of the Cold War.

According to Times Online, The ships’ arrival comes a day before President Dmitry Medvedev visits Venezuela to seal an agreement on strategic energy co-operation with the regime of President Chavez. The Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom will lead a consortium of the country’s largest oil and gas companies in a joint venture with Petroleos de Venezuela. Venezuela has also signed deals to buy Russian arms worth more than $4 billion since 2005.

After the maneuvers “Pyotr Veliky” will round the southern cape of Africa and go to the Arabian Sea, where it will take part in the Russian-Indian naval maneuvers “INDRA-2009” in January. According to Wikipedia “Pyotr Veliky” is a Kirov class battle cruiser that was taken into service in the Northern Fleet in 1998. Excluding aircraft carriers, Kirov class ships are the largest combat surface ships in the world. The 250 meters long vessel has a crew of 655 men and its main armament consists of 20 SS-N-19 missiles.

See video of the vessel’s entrance to Venezuelan waters here