What's That Up in the Sky?
Filed under: Russia ~ Venezuela
Reuters reports:
A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an airshow near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday. The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said. An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million if it were to be sold on the spot. "That is no problem. It is such a cool machine," the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.
Reuters also tells us:
Russia has signed a deal to sell 98 Ilyushin civilian aircraft to Venezuela, Russian newspapers reported on Friday. Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, signed the deal for the Ilyushin-114 planes, which can be used as passenger and cargo planes, the Vremya-Novostei newspaper said. The deal could be worth several billion U.S. dollars, the Izvestia newspaper reported. Russia said last year it had sold 24 Sukhoi jets and 53 helicopters to Venezuela as part of a long-term package of arms contracts worth over $3 billion. Details were not disclosed.
Granted, sending creaking Russian aircraft made by clueless Russians (who can't even show them properly, much less make them safely -- such that the oligarch wants to buy American) to Venezuela may be one way to undermine the Chavez dictatorship by killing off its pilots. But one has to wonder why Chavez needs so much cargo space. What does he want to send, and to whom?
Speaking of Russian planes, Georgia says that they have once again overflown Georgian territory without permission, and this time Georgia has fired at them. Cold war? Perhaps not. Seems to be getting pretty hot in Putin's kitchen.
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