FOR THIS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS, VISIT US AT

UNITED STATES

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/

ARMY WAR COLLEGE

PRESS

Carlisle Barracks, PA

and

THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT

WITH LATIN AMERICA:

STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE,

AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

R. Evan Ellis

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

This Publication

SSI Website

USAWC Website

The United States Army War College

The United States Army War College educates and develops leaders for service

at the strategic level while advancing knowledge in the global application

of Landpower.

The purpose of the United States Army War College is to produce graduates

who are skilled critical thinkers and complex problem solvers. Concurrently,

it is our duty to the U.S. Army to also act as a “think factory” for commanders

and civilian leaders at the strategic level worldwide and routinely engage

in discourse and debate concerning the role of ground forces in achieving

national security objectives.

The Strategic Studies Institute publishes national

security and strategic research and analysis to influence

policy debate and bridge the gap between military

and academia.

The Center for Strategic Leadership and Development

contributes to the education of world class senior

CENTER for

STRATEGIC

LEADERSHIP and

DEVELOPMENT

leaders, develops expert knowledge, and provides

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

solutions to strategic Army issues affecting the national

security community.

The Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute

provides subject matter expertise, technical review,

and writing expertise to agencies that develop stability

operations concepts and doctrines.

U.S. Army War College

The Senior Leader Development and Resiliency program

supports the United States Army War College’s lines of

effort to educate strategic leaders and provide well-being

SLDR

Senior Leader Development and Resiliency

education and support by developing self-awareness

through leader feedback and leader resiliency.

The School of Strategic Landpower develops strategic

leaders by providing a strong foundation of wisdom

grounded in mastery of the profession of arms, and

by serving as a crucible for educating future leaders in

the analysis, evaluation, and refinement of professional

expertise in war, strategy, operations, national security,

resource management, and responsible command.

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center acquires,

conserves, and exhibits historical materials for use

to support the U.S. Army, educate an international

audience, and honor Soldiers—past and present.

STRATEGIC

STUDIES

INSTITUTE

The Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) is part of the U.S. Army War

College and is the strategic-level study agent for issues related

to national security and military strategy with emphasis on

geostrategic analysis.

The mission of SSI is to use independent analysis to conduct

strategic studies that develop policy recommendations on:

• Strategy, planning, and policy for joint and combined

employment of military forces;

• Regional strategic appraisals;

• The nature of land warfare;

• Matters affecting the Army’s future;

• The concepts, philosophy, and theory of strategy; and,

• Other issues of importance to the leadership of the Army.

Studies produced by civilian and military analysts concern

topics having strategic implications for the Army, the Department of

Defense, and the larger national security community.

In addition to its studies, SSI publishes special reports on topics

of special or immediate interest. These include edited proceedings

of conferences and topically oriented roundtables, expanded trip

reports, and quick-reaction responses to senior Army leaders.

The Institute provides a valuable analytical capability within the

Army to address strategic and other issues in support of Army

participation in national security policy formulation.

i

Strategic Studies Institute

and

U.S. Army War College Press

THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT

WITH LATIN AMERICA:

STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE,

AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

R. Evan Ellis

June 2015

The views expressed in this report are those of the author and

do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the

Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S.

Government. Authors of Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) and

U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Press publications enjoy full

academic freedom, provided they do not disclose classified

information, jeopardize operations security, or misrepresent

official U.S. policy. Such academic freedom empowers them to

offer new and sometimes controversial perspectives in the inter-

est of furthering debate on key issues. This report is cleared for

public release; distribution is unlimited.

*****

This publication is subject to Title 17, United States Code,

Sections 101 and 105. It is in the public domain and may not be

copyrighted.

iii

*****

Comments pertaining to this report are invited and should

be forwarded to: Director, Strategic Studies Institute and U.S.

Army War College Press, U.S. Army War College, 47 Ashburn

Drive, Carlisle, PA 17013-5010.

*****

All Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) and U.S. Army War

College (USAWC) Press publications may be downloaded free

of charge from the SSI website. Hard copies of this report may

also be obtained free of charge while supplies last by placing

an order on the SSI website. SSI publications may be quoted

or reprinted in part or in full with permission and appropriate

credit given to the U.S. Army Strategic Studies Institute and U.S.

Army War College Press, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA.

Contact SSI by visiting our website at the following address:

www.StrategicStudiesInstitute.army.mil.

*****

The Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War

College Press publishes a monthly email newsletter to update

the national security community on the research of our analysts,

recent and forthcoming publications, and upcoming confer-

ences sponsored by the Institute. Each newsletter also provides

a strategic commentary by one of our research analysts. If you

are interested in receiving this newsletter, please subscribe on the

SSI website at www.StrategicStudiesInstitute.army.mil/newsletter.

ISBN 1-58487-687-5

iv

FOREWORD

In recent years, attention by the U.S. national se-

curity establishment to challenges in the Western

Hemisphere has concentrated on issues of transna-

tional organized crime, socialist populism, potential

terrorist threats, and similar challenges arising from

poverty, inequality, and weak governance in parts of

the region. As Latin America and the Caribbean na-

tions have expanded their economic and other forms

of engagement with countries beyond the region, the

majority of attention has gone to activities in the re-

gion by the People’s Republic of China, and to a lesser

extent, by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The equally

important re-engagement with the region by the Rus-

sian Federation during this period has received less

attention, particularly among scholarly articles.

Russia’s re-engagement with the region, which be-

gan in earnest in 2008, coincided with an escalation in

tension with the United States over the role of Russia

in the civil war in Georgia and the related succession

of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This led Russia to de-

ploy nuclear-capable backfire bombers and warships

to the Caribbean, as well as initiating a wave of presi-

dential level diplomacy and heightened cooperation

with regimes of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Ameri-

cas (ALBA). In 2014, as tensions with the United States

escalated over the conflict in the Ukraine, Russia re-

newed its attention to the Western Hemisphere with a

new wave of diplomatic and military activity concen-

trating on the relatively anti-U.S. ALBA regimes, as

well as Brazil and Argentina. In both 2008 and 2014,

Russia’s initiatives in Latin America and the Carib-

bean seemed designed to force the United States to re-

spond to a challenge in its own hemisphere, expanding

v

Russia’s freedom of action in its own near abroad. In

the process, Russia’s actions sent an important mes-

sage that U.S. security concerns in the Western Hemi-

sphere are not only a function of dynamics occurring

in the region itself, but also in the interconnected

global security environment. Thus, U.S. decisionmak-

ers responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean

must also consider developments in other theaters.

The present monograph by Strategic Studies In-

stitute professor Dr. R. Evan Ellis is one of the first

in-depth treatments of contemporary Russian engage-

ment with the countries of Latin America and its sig-

nificance from a national security perspective. As such,

it provides important insights into both the nature of

the challenge posed by Russia, as well as the evolv-

ing role and persistent importance of Latin America

and the Caribbean to the national security of the

United States.

This monograph is part of the ongoing effort by

the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War

College to provide analysis of contemporary issues

impacting Latin America and the Carribbean and

other regional security environments, in support of

the Department of the Army, the Department of De-

fense, and other U.S. decisionmakers. We hope that

readers find this work both useful and intellectually

stimulating.

DOUGLAS C. LOVELACE, JR.

Director

Strategic Studies Institute and

U.S. Army War College Press

vi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. EVAN ELLIS is a research professor of Latin Ameri-

can Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army

War College, with a research focus on the region’s re-

lationships with China and other non-Western Hemi-

sphere actors. He has presented his work in a broad

range of business and government forums in 25 coun-

tries on four continents. He has given testimony on

Latin America and Carribbean Security Issues to the

U.S. Congress, and has discussed his work regarding

China and other external actors in Latin America on a

broad range of radio and television programs, includ-

ing CNN International, CNN En Español, The John

Bachelor Show, Voice of America, and Radio Marti.

Dr. Ellis is cited regularly in the print media in both

the United States and Latin America for his work in

this area, including The Washington Times, Bloomberg,

América Economía, DEF, and InfoBAE. Dr. Ellis has

published over 110 works, including China in Latin

America: The Whats and Wherefores (2009), The Strate-

gic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America

(2013), and China on the Ground in Latin America (2014).

Dr. Ellis holds a Ph.D. in political science with a

specialization in comparative politics.

vii

SUMMARY

In many ways, Russia’s expanded engagement

in Latin America as a response to escalating tension

over the Ukraine was a repetition of its answer to U.S.

involvement in the 2008 conflict in the former Soviet

Republic of Georgia. In the 2008 conflict, as the U.S.

deployed naval forces to the Black Sea in response to

Russian support for the breakaway republics of Ab-

khazia and South Ossetia, Russia countered with a

series of actions in Latin America, including sending

nuclear-capable Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela, from

where they conducted symbolically charged flights

around the Caribbean. This was followed a month

later by the deployment of a four-ship Russian naval

flotilla to the area to conduct military exercises with

the Venezuelan navy before making port calls in Cuba

and Nicaragua.

In addition to Russia’s military deployments, in

November 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medve-

dev traveled to Latin America to participate in the

leadership summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the

Americas, then subsequently hosted both Venezuelan

President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President

Daniel Ortega in Moscow. Three months later, Boliv-

ian President Evo Morales also traveled to Russia,

followed in November 2009 by Ecuadorian President

Rafael Correa.

By comparison to the extensive literature on the

activities of the Soviet Union in the Western Hemi-

sphere during the Cold War, and by contrast to the

rapidly growing body of works on China’s activities

in the region, very little beyond journalistic accounts

have been written to examine contemporary Russian

activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. As

ix

Russia’s reassertion of its global position and associ-

ated tensions with the United States proceed apace,

a broad understanding of Russia in the Americas be-

comes evermore important, both as a question of U.S.

national security and as an important dynamic shap-

ing the global geopolitical environment. This mono-

graph seeks to do so, focusing on the character of the

ongoing Russian re-engagement with Latin Amer-

ica and the Caribbean and its implications for the

United States.

x

THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT

WITH LATIN AMERICA:

STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE, AND

DREAMS OF THE PAST

OVERVIEW

In February 2015, Russian Defense Minister Sergei

Shoigu traveled to Latin America to meet with leaders

and defense officials in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezu-

ela. The focus of meetings in all three countries was

on access to ports and airfields in the region so as to

support Russian military operations in the vicinity

of the United States. In Nicaragua, Minister Shoigu

signed an agreement to facilitate Russian access to the

ports of Corinto and Bluefields, as well as strengthen-

ing counterdrug cooperation and discussing weapons

sales. The trip advanced discussions and reinforced

the message sent by Russian President Vladimir Pu-

tin when he had traveled to the region just 7 months

previously, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Argentina,

and Brazil. As the Barack Obama administration in-

creasingly pressured Russia regarding its activities in

the Ukraine, Russia was equally capable of reassert-

ing its presence and challenging the United States

in Latin America, the region once considered the

“U.S. backyard.”

In many ways, Russia’s expanded engagement

in Latin America as a response to escalating tension

over the Ukraine was a repetition of its answer to U.S.

involvement in the 2008 conflict in the former Soviet

Republic of Georgia. In that conflict, as the U.S. de-

ployed naval forces to the Black Sea in response to

Russian support for the breakaway republics of Ab-

khazia and South Ossetia, Russia had countered with

a series of actions in Latin America. These actions

1

included sending nuclear-capable Tu-160 bombers to

Venezuela, from where they conducted symbolically

charged flights around the Caribbean. This was fol-

lowed a month later by the deployment of a four-ship

Russian naval flotilla to the area to conduct military

exercises with the Venezuelan navy before making

port calls in Cuba and Nicaragua.

In addition to Russia’s military deployments, in

November 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medve-

dev traveled to Latin America to participate in the

leadership summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the

Americas (ALBA), then subsequently hosted both

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan

President Daniel Ortega in Moscow. Three months

later, Bolivian President Evo Morales also traveled

to Russia, followed in November 2009 by Ecuadorian

President Rafael Correa.

Russia’s re-engagement with Latin America and

the Caribbean has proceeded unevenly since its be-

ginning in 2008. At that time, Russia concentrated on

a limited number of countries, including the regimes

of ALBA, as well as Argentina, Brazil, and Peru, even

though it has engaged commercially, politically, and

economically with other states of the region as well.

With respect to economic interactions, by contrast

to expanding activities in the region by the People’s

Republic of China (PRC), Russia’s economic activi-

ties there have been smaller and concentrated in a

more limited number of sectors, including arms sales,

petroleum, electricity production, and mining. Yet,

however uneven, Russia’s re-engagement with the re-

gion since 2008 has produced significant cumulative

results. When President Putin traveled to the region

in 2014 on a four-nation tour to send a message to the

United States over the conflict in the Ukraine, he was

not doing so from the same low base from which his

2

predecessor, Medvedev, had begun when Medvedev

launched the prior diplomatic re-engagement with

the region.

In another contrast to Chinese engagement with

Latin America and the Caribbean, Russia has not shied

away from acting in a way that overtly challenged the

United States. As noted earlier, the 2014 round of Rus-

sian re-engagement with the region began with an

announcement by Shoigu that his nation was talking

with Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela about estab-

lishing bases in those nations for resupplying Russian

warships, and potentially for refueling Russian long

range bombers. One year later, as noted previously,

the Defense Minister visited the three countries to

conduct talks regarding such base access. This was

complimented by an announcement during the same

period that Russia, for the first time, might send its

aircraft on long range patrols that would reach into

the Gulf of Mexico.

By comparison to the extensive literature on the

activities of the Soviet Union in the Western Hemi-

sphere during the Cold War, and by contrast to the

rapidly growing body of works on China’s activities

in the region, very little beyond journalistic accounts

have been written to examine contemporary Russian

activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. As Rus-

sia’s reassertion of its global position and associated

tensions with the United States proceed apace, a broad

understanding of Russia in the Americas becomes

evermore important, both as a question of U.S. nation-

al security and as an important dynamic shaping the

global geopolitical environment.

This monograph seeks to fill that gap, focusing

on the character of the ongoing Russian re-engage-

3

ment with Latin America and the Caribbean and its

implications for the United States.

Background.

By comparison with some other extra-hemispheric

actors such as China, India, and Iran, the political and

economic relationships that Russia maintained with

Latin America and the Caribbean during the Cold

War arguably give it a substantial base of experience

in dealing with the region. Yet, Russia’s engagement

with Latin America and the Caribbean began well be-

fore the Cold War. In the 19th century, Russian offi-

cials and persons of influence affiliated with the Tsar-

ist court recognized, in Latin American independence

movements from Spain and Portugal, an opportunity

to expand Russia’s economic and political influence

through ties to the region.1 Both Brazil, which fought

its war of independence from Portugal from February

1822 to November 1823, and Mexico, which won its

independence from Spain in 1821, sought ties with

Russia as part of their maneuverings among other

European powers.2 The Russian-American Company,

with economic interests in commerce with the region

(not unlike those of the British East India Company

in Asia), also played an important role in advancing

relations during this period.3

During the 20th century, the Russian revolution

and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Re-

publics (USSR) gave rise to a mixture of sentiments

among Latin American leftists toward the new Soviet

government. The Soviet Union, for its part, nurtured

ties with leftist parties and revolutionary movements

in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet, not until the

Cuban Revolution of 1959 did the region become a

4

significant focus for Soviet initiatives to advance the

communist cause and the strategic position of the

USSR in its global struggle against the United States.

In many ways, the success of Fidel Castro’s revo-

lutionary forces in seizing power in Cuba in January

1959 showed the Soviet Union the potential for left-

ist movements and others supportive of the USSR

to come to power by force in Latin America and the

Caribbean.4 Driven in part by such new optimism re-

garding the possibilities for advancing communism

and the Soviet strategic position in Latin America,

the USSR began to develop important centers of Latin

American studies during this time, such as the Latin

American Studies Institute of the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs in Moscow.5

From the 1970s through the 1990s, the Soviet Union

provided overt and covert support for, and main-

tained relationships with, numerous revolutionary

movements throughout the region, including those in

El Salvador, Guatemala, Grenada, and the Dominican

Republic.6

Beyond such backing, the Soviet Union also pur-

sued a second track of maintaining friendly ties with

leaders who, while not communist, pursued a popu-

list or independent orientation that disposed them to

work with the USSR to varying degrees. Such figures

included Salvador Allende in Chile (until he was de-

posed and killed in September 1973), Juan Peron in

Argentina, Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, and General Jose

Torres in Bolivia. Later examples with whom the So-

viet Union collaborated to some degree included Gen-

eral Juan Velasco Alvarado in Peru, as well as Mexican

President Luis Echeverría.7

Beyond Cuba, several countries maintained an

important military relationship with the Soviet Union

5

during this period. The most prominent was Velasco,

whose Peruvian government purchased substantial

quantities of arms and received advisors from the

Soviet Union. In addition, when the Frente Sandinista

de Liberación Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation

Front or FSLN) came to power in Nicaragua in 1979,

its newly triumphant revolutionary leader, Ortega,

similarly brought Soviet advisors into the country, as

well as receiving Soviet military and economic aid.8

The Soviet Union also maintained important eco-

nomic relationships with more conservative regimes.

Examples include Argentina, under the military rule

of Jorge Rafael Videla, whose government became a

major supplier of grain to the USSR after 1980 when

the United States suspended its own sales of grain

to the Soviet Union.9 In a similar fashion, the Brazil-

ian military government of João Baptista de Oliveira

Figueiredo sold feed corn to the Soviet Union.10

Beyond food sales, Soviet economic ties to the re-

gion during the Cold War included participation in

the construction of hydroelectric power plants in Bra-

zil, Mexico, and Colombia; irrigation projects in Peru

and Venezuela; and purchases of Cuban sugar, Brazil-

ian cacao, and Colombian and Ecuadorian bananas.11

Although the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

did not end engagement with Latin America and the

Caribbean, economic aid from the successor Russian

government to political allies such as Cuba12 and Ni-

caragua13 declined sharply, and diplomatic activity

in the region was similarly scaled back. As Russia’s

economy was transformed during the early post-Cold

War years, the nature of its economic engagement

with Latin America and the Caribbean shifted, focus-

ing on a small number of industries in which the new

Russia was building global ties. These included arms,

petroleum, mining, and electricity generation.

6

During this period, the legacy of Latin America’s

strategic value to the Soviet Union was not lost to the

new generation of Russian thinkers, but rather rede-

fined within the context of Russian global engage-

ment. In 1997, for example, Foreign Minister Yevgeny

Primakov made a trip to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia,

and Costa Rica where he spoke of Latin America as a

major Russian ally in the construction of a multipolar

world.14

Russia’s legacy of engagement with Latin America

and the Caribbean during this period both contrib-

utes to, and creates challenges for its present activities

there. Part of that legacy is a group of now high-rank-

ing (or retired) military officers, diplomats, business-

men, and others in Russia familiar with the region and

the Spanish language (as well as Portuguese to some

degree). At the same time, however, Russia’s past en-

gagement has also left a cadre of conservative political

and business figures in influential positions in Latin

America and the Caribbean, who are deeply suspi-

cious of Russia’s intentions as it seeks to rebuild its

ties in the region.

Fast-forwarding to the present, Russian companies

and diplomats have sought to position themselves

between a developed West and a rising Asia, with

well-known products in niche sectors such as defense,

and companies able to play by a more “flexible” set of

rules than the U.S. and European firms that they are

competing against. With the persistent and deepen-

ing hostility between Russia, the United States, and

Europe, however, Russia’s ability to position itself

between the West and Asia may be eroding.

7

Motivations.

Russia’s re-engagement with Latin America argu-

ably reflects a complex mix of often reinforcing, but oc-

casionally conflicting, strategic, economic, and internal

political considerations. For Russia, as suggested pre-

viously, the nation’s return to Latin America and the

Caribbean is a reaction to an aggressive campaign by

the United States following the collapse of the Soviet

Union to not only bring the states of the former War-

saw Pact into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO),15 but building alliance relationships with the

Baltic States16 and other nations once part of the Soviet

Union itself. Russia believes this would bring the po-

litical and military power of its former adversary to

the very doorstep of Russia.17

By creating a political and potential military chal-

lenge close to the United States, Russia’s projection in

the hemisphere attempts to force the United States to

focus part of its attention and resources on responding

to the new vulnerability close to home, thus leaving it

with less resources and attention to challenge Russia

in its own neighborhood, or in other parts of the world.

Beyond its strategic value, re-engagement with Latin

America also arguably has benefitted Russia’s leaders

in domestic politics. Under the regimes of both Rus-

sian Presidents Medvedev and Putin, Russian military

activities in Latin America, high-level diplomacy with

Latin American leaders, and the economic projects

highlighted and facilitated by such diplomacy, dem-

onstrate to the Russian people that the nation is over-

coming the perceived tragedy of its withdrawal from

the world stage following the collapse of the Soviet

Union.18 It is now returning to a position of strength in

which Russians can take pride.

8

For Medvedev in 2008, Russia’s return to Latin

America was arguably important in helping to over-

come perceptions of him as a weak leader, only “keep-

ing the presidential chair warm” until his predeces-

sor, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, could reclaim

power. For Putin, the latest deepening of Russia’s en-

gagement with Latin America and the Caribbean, in-

cluding his July 2014 trip to the region, demonstrated

to Russians that his policies in the Ukraine had not iso-

lated the nation internationally, and indeed, that they

were returning Russia to a position of international

leadership in which they could take pride. Indeed, as

Putin consolidates his power within the Russian po-

litical system and constructs a “cult of personality”

in the Russian tradition, the return to Latin America

which bears his imprimatur helps him to win his place

among a long line of Russian leaders who have built

or asserted the greatness of the Russian nation, such

as Rurik, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Great, Ivan the

Terrible, and Peter the Great.

Within the framework of strategic and domestic

political considerations, Russia’s focus on particular

industries, such as arms, petroleum, mining, and elec-

tricity infrastructure projects is a product of the struc-

ture of Russia’s economy and the tools available to the

Russian state. In addition, it reflects the imperatives

of leading industries in the Russian economy, and the

influential figures connected to them.19

Country Focus of Re-Engagement.

As Russia has reconstructed its ties with Latin

America and the Caribbean, its limited resources and

the legacy of its activities in the region during the Cold

War has led it to concentrate its activities on three

groups of countries:

9

1. former Soviet-era allies such as Cuba and

Nicaragua,

2. the broader group of states willing to assume

the political risk of working with Russia against U.S.

influence in the region, such as Venezuela, and to a

lesser degree, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and

3. states neither opposed to the United States

or Russia, but in which Russia has a strategic

commercial interest.

In the case of the first group, although Russia

was able to leverage relationships and economic de-

pendencies from the Cold War period, it also had to

overcome the legacy of resentment for having “aban-

doned” those allies. This challenge was most visible

in Cuba, where there was a widespread perception, at

least among the leadership, that the economic hard-

ship that the island had experienced in the 1990s was

due, in part, to the Soviet Union having “stranded” it

financially.

In Nicaragua, by contrast, the communist Sandini-

sta government was voted out of power in 1990, the

year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 2007 return to

power of Sandinista leader Ortega set the state for Ni-

caragua to reach out to Russia during the 2008 Georgia

crisis in an unsolicited gesture to recognize the new

breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In the process, Nicaragua earned Russian gratitude

and set the stage for the resumption of Russia-Nicara-

gua diplomatic interactions, as well as Russian aid.20

The difference between the group of Cold War era

Soviet client states and new Russian allies such as Ven-

ezuela is not their willingness to work explicitly with

Russia against the United States. Rather, newcomers

such as Venezuela lack a cadre of military and politi-

10

cal leaders who openly collaborated with the Soviet

Union against the United States during the earlier era.

By contrast, the Cuban and Nicaraguan leaderships

understand from personal experience that inviting a

Russian military presence into the country threatens

the United States and could precipitate a forcible in-

tervention against the regime. When the current Ven-

ezuelan leadership similarly invites Russian warships

and nuclear-capable aircraft to stage operations from

the country, they arguably do so without a historical

sense of the potential risks of such actions.

Such differences notwithstanding, the combina-

tion of both types of allies provide Russia with the op-

portunity to engage with the region in a sufficiently

provocative way so as to send a message to the United

States. As noted earlier, Russia’s open gambit in this

exchange was to deploy Tu-160 bombers to Venezu-

ela, and from there, to conduct flights in Caribbean

airspace to remind the United States that, with the

help of partners in the region, it could put nuclear-

capable offensive military assets able to strike the

United States with little warning.21 The staging of Rus-

sian warships from Venezuela, and subsequently port

calls to Cuba and Nicaragua, reinforced this message,

while demonstrating the willingness of multiple na-

tions of ALBA to participate in the implicit threat. For

similar reasons, Russian President Medvedev chose a

summit of ALBA leaders in Caracas, Venezuela, to re-

ceive him when he traveled to the region in November

2008.22

With respect to the third group, the three countries

with which Russia has had the most significant interac-

tions have been Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. Although

the response of these countries to Russian advances

has not included explicit anti-U.S. political or military

11

activity, the progress achieved is significant because

of the political, military, and economic weight in the

region of the countries involved.

Russian Engagement through Multilateral Forums.

As during the Cold War period, Russia has used

multilateral forums to compliment other vehicles for

its political and economic engagement with Latin

America. It has done so across a broad range of activi-

ties, from meetings of groups such as the G-7 (United

States, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom

[UK], Italy, and Canada), G-20 (Argentina, Australia,

Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, In-

donesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia,

South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the United

States, and the European Union [EU]), and the Asia-

Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), to anti-U.S. en-

tities such as ALBA, and those exclusive of the United

States, such as the Union of South American Nations

(UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American

and Caribbean States (CELAC). In general, Russia has

used different types of forums in different ways. It has

employed conventional forums such as the G-7, G-20,

and APEC as tools to participate on an “equal footing”

in the “club” of advanced nations, while it has used

forums such as ALBA, UNASUR, and CELAC to send

symbolic messages to the United States and strength-

en its ties with the region in a way that excludes the

United States.

In a similar fashion, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia,

India, China, and South Africa) forum offered Rus-

sia an important opportunity to engage with not just

members of the alliance itself,23 but also with other

Latin American countries which came to the site of the

12

summit. Forums such as the G-20 and APEC have af-

forded Russia multilateral engagement opportunities

with Latin American countries on Russian soil. The

September 2012 APEC summit, for example, was held

in Vladivostok, Russia, and the September 2013 G-20

meeting was held in St. Petersburg. Similarly, the next

BRICS summit in 2015 is to be held in Ufa, Russia,24

and the 2018 World Cup will be held in Russia as well.

Beyond such engagements, Russia has also sought

engagement with Latin American and Caribbean states

through the framework of explicitly Latin American

multilateral forums and sub-regional forums. Russia

has used Latin American venues exclusive of the Unit-

ed States to spearhead its re-engagement with the re-

gion. These include not only ALBA, but also CELAC,

whose foreign ministers met with their Russian coun-

terpart in Havana, Cuba, in May 2013. At the end of

the meeting, Putin expressed a strong interest in devel-

oping a relationship.25 Russia has similarly indicated

interest in “substantive interactions” with UNASUR,

the Pacific Alliance, the Central American Integration

System (SICA) and the Caribbean Community (CARI-

COM), notably ignoring a demonstration of interest in

the Organization of American States (OAS), in which

the United States and Canada are members.26

Military Interactions.

As during the Cold War with the Soviet Union,

military engagement has been a cornerstone of Rus-

sia’s reassertion of its presence in Latin America and

the Caribbean. Such engagement, although somewhat

more low key than it was during the Cold War, has

encompassed a full range of military activities, includ-

ing expanded leadership visits, education and train-

13

ing interactions, arms sales, and deployments to the

region. As noted earlier, Russia has reactivated and

built upon relationships with Soviet-era client states

of Nicaragua and Cuba, as well as leveraging coun-

tries which purchased Russian military goods during

the Cold War and which have maintained some ties

with the Russian armed forces. These countries in-

clude Peru, as mentioned previously, and to a lesser

extent, Brazil and Mexico.

With respect to arms sales and associated mainte-

nance and training support, between 2001 and 2013,

Russia sold Latin America $14.5 billion in arms, rep-

resenting approximately 40 percent of the $35.5 bil-

lion in arms purchased by the region from external

sources during the period.27 Of these purchases, ap-

proximately $11 billion went to Venezuela.28 Russian

arms are well represented at Latin American defense

expos such as FIDAE in Chile, Latin American Agri-

business Development (LAAD) Corporation in Brazil,

and SitDef in Peru.29

Russia’s most successful product in engaging with

the region has been its helicopters with over 400 Mi-

17 transport helicopters reportedly in service in the

region, accounting for 42 percent of its military heli-

copter fleet.30 Virtually all of the major countries in the

region have at least some Russian helicopters in their

inventory, including Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador,

Argentina, and Mexico. In many of these countries,

Russia has used its earlier success selling arms to the

region to win contracts in the contemporary period

for maintaining and repairing them. The experience

with Russian products and the simplification of main-

tenance, spare parts, and training by concentrating the

weapons inventory on a single country,31 decreased

the complexity of maintenance and training in prolif-

14

erating supplier countries. This experience and sim-

plification, as well as the personal relationships built

up over years of working with the Russian personnel,

have each played a role in helping Russian companies

secure such contracts.

Despite such successes, the Russian record in the

Latin American arms market has not been without

problems. Despite the previously mentioned success

of Rosoboronexport in selling $11 billion in arms to

Venezuela, 32 it saw those sales stall when Venezuela’s

Bolivarian Socialist government ran out of money in

a growing financial and political crisis. This allowed

Chinese arms companies to make significant inroads

in a market that had once been almost completely

dominated by the Russians.33

Although Russia has sold the country attack heli-

copters and air defense systems, the Brazilian market

has not lived up to the importance that Russia has put

on the country as a partner.34 Indeed, Russian arms

manufacturers have suffered multiple disappoint-

ments in Brazil, including the failure to sell the coun-

try the Russian Su-35 fighter or the Tigr light armored

vehicle, as well as the inability to win follow-on work

from the 2008 contract for Mi-35 attack helicopters be-

yond the 12 units in the original contract. On the other

hand, the BrahMos missile, one of the most significant

new weapons that could be introduced into the region

through sales to Brazil, is not entirely Russian, but

rather a collaborative effort with India.35

With respect to military activities beyond arms

sales, Russian deployments, institutional visits, and

other forms of military engagement with Latin Amer-

ica have increased and tapered off with the two previ-

ously mentioned cycles of heightened tensions with

the United States, in 2008 with the crisis in Georgia,

and in 2014 with escalating tensions in the Ukraine.

15

During the Georgia crisis, as a short-term response

to the U.S. naval presence in the Black Sea, Russia

sent two supersonic, nuclear-capable Tu-160 backfire

bombers to Venezuela, and from there, to conduct

exercises in the Caribbean.36 Approximately 1 month

later (reflecting the time required to plan and execute

a trans-Atlantic naval movement), Russia sent a 4-ship

naval flotilla to Venezuela, including the cruiser Peter

the Great, the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, a mine-

sweeper, and a supply ship. These ships conducted

a naval exercise with their Venezuelan counterparts

before making port calls in Cuba and Nicaragua.37

In a manner parallel to its actions during the 2008

Georgia conflict, as U.S.-Russia tensions escalated

over the Ukraine in 2014, Russia bolstered a flurry of

diplomatic activity to the region by Foreign Minister

Sergei Lavrov and President Putin with declarations

regarding the establishment or reactivation of bases in

Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.38 During the same

months, a Russian signals collection ship visited Cuba

multiple times.39

Despite the correlation between U.S.-Russian ten-

sions and Russian military activity in Latin America,

a portion of expanding Russian military engagement

with the West has been independent from tensions

elsewhere. In March 2013, for example, following a

visit to Nicaragua by Russian Armed Forces Chief

of Staff Valery Gerasimov, Russia announced that it

was constructing a major new counterdrug center in

Managua, Nicaragua. The facility, officially address-

ing the very real problem of drug production in, and

shipment across, the region, would be used to train

not only Nicaraguans, but also law enforcement per-

sonnel from an array of other countries in the region,

giving Russia important security engagement oppor-

tunities with those nations.40

16

Similarly, a three-ship Russian flotilla traveled to

the region in August 2013, making port calls in both

Cuba and Nicaragua.41 In February 2014, as the crisis

in the Ukraine escalated, Commander in Chief of U.S.

Southern Command General John Kelly commented

that Russia’s new military presence in the region was

greater than anything seen in 3 decades.42

Commercial Focus of Re-Engagement.

By comparison with other extra-hemispheric actors

in the region such as the PRC, Russia’s commercial en-

gagement has been more limited in its overall volume

and in its concentration on a number of countries and

sectors. In 2013, Russia’s bilateral trade with Latin

America and the Caribbean was $18.8 billion, repre-

senting less than 1 percent of the $2.35 trillion in trade

between the states of the region and the rest of the

world. This was 14 times less than China’s $257.9 bil-

lion in trade with Latin America and the Caribbean.43

Even as Russia expands its bilateral trade with the

region, it continues to fall further behind China, the

current star in interregional trade. Although Russia’s

trade with the region has expanded almost six-fold

from the $3.3 billion that it traded with the region in

2003, China’s trade with the region increased almost

10-fold during the same period.44

Russia’s commercial relationship with Latin Amer-

ica is dominated by its engagement with Brazil and

Mexico, which together represent 50 percent of Rus-

sian trade with the region. Other significant partners

there, in declining order, include Argentina, Ecuador,

Panama, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, and

Nicaragua. The composition of trade between Rus-

sia and each of its partners also varies significantly.

17

For example, Russia both imports products from and

exports products to Brazil, by contrast to Venezuela,

for which only $10 million (less than .3 percent) of its

$3.42 billion in trade was from exports to Russia. Simi-

larly, Mexico and Peru run significant trade deficits

with Russia, while for most of the rest, Russia imports

more from these countries than it exports to them.45

With respect to the sectorial composition of Rus-

sian trade with Latin America, the latter has been

particularly concentrated in petroleum, mining, arms

sales, and niche technologies such as nuclear energy.

In the petroleum and mining sectors, Russian firms

have made investments in a number of Latin Ameri-

can countries, including oilfields in Venezuela and

bauxite mines in Jamaica and Guyana, among others.

Russian firms such as Inter Rao and Power Machines

have bid for, and supplied, components for the con-

struction of hydroelectric and thermoelectric facilities,

while Rosatom has positioned itself to build civilian

nuclear reactors in Brazil and Argentina, and less re-

alistically, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay. Russia has

also been a significant buyer of Latin American agri-

cultural goods, and in recent years, the country has

demonstrated an expanded interest in Latin America

as a tourist destination, with a focus on Cuba, Jamaica,

and other islands of the Caribbean.

In general, Russian banks have not played as signif-

icant a role in advancing its projects in Latin America

in the way that Chinese financing has underwritten its

construction and infrastructure projects in the ALBA

states and the Caribbean, with Chinese policy banks

loaning more than $100 billion to the region between

2005 and 2013.46 Nonetheless, Russia has provided

money to select Latin American countries, including

$4 billion through the Russia-Venezuela joint bank

18

in 2012 and 2013 to make possible Venezuela’s pur-

chase of Russian arms.47 Similarly, the Russian policy

bank Vnesheconombank has offered financial back-

ing for Russian hydroelectric projects in Ecuador and

Argentina.

With respect to multilateral lending, in July 2014

at the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, Russia, like

other BRICS members, offered to put up $10 billion

in seed capital for the establishment of a new “BRICS

bank.”48 Russia has also indicated an interest in join-

ing the Inter-American Development Bank, and has

signed cooperation agreements with the Andean De-

velopment Corporation (CAF) and the Latin American

Association of Development Financing Institutions,49

yet to date, such proposals have not borne fruit.

With respect to Russia as a market and source of

investment for Latin America and the Caribbean, the

mediocre performance of the Russian economy and

the nation’s limited commercial interactions with the

region have not inspired the same level of enthusiasm

among the region’s political leaders and businessmen

that China has inspired there. Although Russia has

a reservoir of goodwill with certain Latin American

and Caribbean countries, particularly among its Cold

War allies and the members of ALBA, Latin American

students are not clamoring to learn Russian, nor are

businessmen hurrying to establish themselves in the

Russian domestic market.

Ethnic Russians in Latin America.

In interacting with the states of Latin America and

the Caribbean, Russia has a relatively limited dias-

pora of its ethnic nationals living there. Most of Latin

America’s Russian population immigrated from the

19

end of the 19th century through the early-20th cen-

tury, fleeing economic hardship and later the violence

and chaos of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Between the formation of the Soviet Union and its

collapse in 1989, a smaller group of Russians migrated

to the region, including some who came to countries

such as Cuba to fight for the revolutionary cause.

The largest Russian immigrant population in Latin

America and the Caribbean is found today in Argen-

tina, Uruguay, and Brazil,50 although small numbers

of Russians are found throughout the region.51 They

have not, however, played a highly visible role in con-

temporary Russian re-engagement with the region,

either in economic or political terms.

Intellectual Infrastructure.

By contrast to the PRC, Russia’s re-engagement

with Latin America that started in 2008 was able to

leverage a relatively well-developed pool of academic

knowledge regarding the region, as well as a substan-

tial group of persons with the language skills to oper-

ate there, thanks to the legacy of Soviet engagement

there during the Cold War. This includes the previ-

ously noted sending of advisors and others to Cuba

and Nicaragua, the nurturing of relationships with

guerilla movements in states such as El Salvador and

Guatemala, and ongoing ties to the states of the re-

gion, as well as out-of-power leftist parties and move-

ments. As Sovietologist Cole Blasier put it in 1987, the

Soviet Union established a presence in the Western

Hemisphere “unique in history.”52

As noted earlier, the intellectual infrastructure in

Russia for understanding Latin America began to in-

crease in 1959 with the Cuban revolution and the op-

20

portunities that it highlighted for the Soviet Union to

expand its political and military position in the region.

While Russian engagement itself fell off somewhat

with the retrenchment of Russia at the end of the Cold

War, the nation’s key Latin America centers today are

able to leverage to some degree the body of knowl-

edge built up by Latin Americanists from that era:

1. the Institute of Latin America, Moscow,

2. the Institute of World Economy and Internation-

al Relations in Moscow,

3. the Latin America research center at Moscow

State University, and

4. the Center for the Study of Latin America, part

of St. Petersburg State University.

Of these, the oldest, largest, and most prestigious is

arguably the Institute of Latin America, established by

the Soviet government in 1961. At its height in the late-

1980s, this institute included 100 full-time researchers

and provided support for others in other institutions

throughout the country.53

Interactions with Other Extra-regional Actors.

Another important consideration for Russia as

it has expanded its engagement in Latin America is

competition from, and complementarity with, the

commercial and governmental entities of other extra-

hemispheric actors also operating in the region. In

political, military, commercial, and other affairs, those

interactions have featured a complex mixture of com-

petition and complementarity. In forums such as the

BRICS, for example, Russia has presented a united

front with states from outside the hemisphere such

as China and India against established “developed

21

nations” in the region. In military affairs, as noted

previously, Russia has cooperated with India to de-

velop the hypersonic BrahMos missile,54 marketed to

Latin American countries including Brazil, Chile, and

Venezuela.55

At the same time, Russia also competes with other

extra-hemispheric actors for the Latin America de-

fense market. Examples include a 2012 bid for an air

defense systems contract in Peru, in which Russian

and Chinese companies went head-to-head. In Ven-

ezuela, Russian arms sales have been to some degree

displaced by sales to Chinese companies, beginning

with a $500 million contract in July 2012 to the Chinese

arms company NORINCO. The contract included pur-

chase of armored vehicles, fighter aircraft, and other

advanced equipment once supplied almost solely by

Russian companies to the Venezuelan market.56

With respect to commerce, Russian, Chinese, and

Indian companies have competed for oil blocks and

mining concessions in Venezuela, Ecuador, and other

countries of the region. In Argentina, for example,

Russian and Chinese companies have been rivals in

the energy sector for hydroelectric projects such as the

Nestor Kirchner and Jorge Copernic facilities on Ar-

gentina’s Santa Cruz River, as well as for the construc-

tion of new nuclear facilities.57

RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN

AMERICA COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY

The following section of this monograph analyzes

Russian activities in Latin America and the Caribbean

on a country-by-country basis, with an emphasis on

political and military engagement, as well as Russian

commercial projects in the region in sectors such as

22

petroleum, mining, energy infrastructure, and to

a lesser extent, trade. While this section attempts to

cover the most significant country relationships,

commercial ventures, and interactions, it does not at-

tempt to provide an exhaustive list of all countries or

Russian activities in the region.

Mexico.

The current Mexico-Russia relationship is rela-

tively modest, although during the Cold War, the So-

viet Union courted left-of-center Mexican Presidents

like Luis Echeverría, who, in 1973, became the first

Latin American leader to visit the Soviet Union. Re-

ciprocally in 2004, Russian President Putin traveled to

Mexico for a state visit, meeting with his counterpart,

Vicente Fox. In 2005, Fox reciprocated by making a

state visit to Russia, and the two met again in the G-8

(United States, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy,

Canada, and Russia) + G-5 (United States, Japan, Ger-

many, France, and the UK) meeting in St. Petersburg

in 2006.58 As a legacy of Mexico’s independent posture

in the Americas, that country has traditionally main-

tained some military interactions with Russia.

In the domain of arms sales, the Mexican navy has

purchased Russian BTR-60 and Ural-4320 armored

vehicles, 52 of which remain in service,59 as well as

9K38 Igla anti-aircraft missiles. Russia has also sold to

Mexico 24 Mi-17 Hip-H helicopters, acquired between

1996 and 1999, as well as 12 Mi-8T Hip-C transport

helicopters and two Antonov An-124 heavy transport

aircraft.60 As with Russian military engagements in

other Latin American countries, such sales have creat-

ed opportunities for interactions for the maintenance

of, and modifications to, the equipment. Beginning in

23

May 2014, Mexico begun to send its aging Mi-17s and

Mi-8Ts helicopters to Russia for upgrades, even as it

replaced another part of the same military transport

fleet with European Airbus Super Puma helicopters.61

Security interactions have also extended beyond arms

sales to Russian assistance in the struggle against or-

ganized crime, with an agreement signed between the

two governments on the topic in 2010.62

In addition to military actions, Russia also engages

with Mexico in the commercial sphere to a greater de-

gree than is commonly recognized. In 2013, Mexico

was Russia’s 6th largest trading partner in the region,

although almost the entire relationship ($827 million

out of $849 billion in bilateral trade) was Mexican pur-

chases of Russian products.63 Mexico’s exports to Rus-

sia also include a relatively large quantity of manufac-

tured goods. Indeed, 55 percent of Mexican exports to

Russia in 2013 were motorized vehicles (cars, trucks,

motorcycles, etc.), although another 12 percent was

alcohol and other beverages. For Russia, half of the

nation’s exports to Mexico in 2013 were iron and steel,

with another 21 percent being fertilizers, and another

18 percent being mineral fuels and oils.64

With respect to specific Russian investments in

Mexico, Russian oil companies have expressed inter-

est in the nation’s petroleum sector, seeking to capital-

ize on opportunities for participation for foreign na-

tionals created by reforms to the sector. The first major

foray by a Russian firm into the sector was the Rus-

sian firm Lukoil, which signed an agreement with the

Mexican state oil company Pemex in February 2014 to

cooperate in oil exploration and the supply of oil tech-

nology.65 As in other Latin American countries, the

Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom has signed an

agreement with the Mexican government to assist in

24

the development of civilian nuclear power,66 although

the agreement has not yet produced a significant

commercial initiative.

In aviation, the Mexican commercial airline Inter-

jet has purchased $650 million in Superjet-100 planes

from Russia’s Sukhoi.67 Russia has also sought to fa-

cilitate tourism and other travel with Mexico, with

the two countries establishing direct flights between

Moscow and Cancun.68 In general, the focus of Rus-

sian tourism in Mexico has been the state of Quintana

Roo, the location of Cancun and the Caribbean beach

resorts of Riviera Maya, with an estimated 30,000

Russians visiting the state in 2011 alone.69

Despite its close relations to the United States,

Mexico’s interest in exporting goods to Russia has po-

sitioned it to benefit from Russia’s dispute with the

United States and Europe over the Ukraine. As with

other countries such as Argentina and Brazil, when

Russia suspended purchases of agricultural goods

from the United States and Europe,70 the Mexican

government repeatedly sought to facilitate opportuni-

ties for Mexican companies to increase agricultural ex-

ports to Russia,71 but found little interest among them

in doing so.72

Nicaragua.

During the Cold War, Russian and Cuban assis-

tance helped bring the FSLN and its leader Ortega to

power,73 and help the government to survive the chal-

lenge posed by the contra insurgency. Nonetheless,

the relationship atrophied following Russia’s with-

draw from the region in 1989 and the loss of power

by the Sandinistas in the February 1990 Nicaraguan

national election.

25

The renovation of close relations between Russia

and Nicaragua that began in 2008 was triggered by

a coincidence of imperatives and enabling conditions

on both the Nicaraguan and Russian sides. In January

2007, former Nicaraguan President and revolutionary

Ortega returned to power after prevailing in a com-

plex presidential election in which both his Sandini-

sta movement and the more conservative opposition

were split. If Ortega was looking for an opportunity to

show his Russian allies that Nicaragua could still be

useful to Moscow in the post-Cold War era, such an

opportunity presented itself in September 2008 dur-

ing the civil war in Georgia, when Ortega’s govern-

ment became the first in Latin America to recognize

diplomatically the pro-Russian breakaway republics

of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In the context of the same conflict, in the final

months of 2008, Russia reached out to receptive states

in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to con-

duct political and military activities in close proxim-

ity to the United States. This action was intended to

send a symbolic warning to the United States that

Russia was capable of acting in the U.S. “backyard,”

in response to what it interpreted as U.S. meddling

in its own sphere of interest. Nicaragua was one of

the states, along with Venezuela and Cuba, which

agreed to host some of the most provocative aspects

of the Russian demonstration. Specifically, Nicaragua

received two Russian nuclear-capable, supersonic

Tu-160 bombers sent by Russia to conduct flights in

the Caribbean. A month later, in December, it simi-

larly hosted a visiting flotilla of Russian warships led

by the cruiser Peter the Great.74

Following the incidents of 2008, Nicaragua con-

tinued to play a key role in Russian military engage-

26

ment with the region. In April 2013, Chief of Staff of

the Russian Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov

traveled to Nicaragua to preside over the opening of a

munitions disposal facility in the country, and to dis-

cuss military cooperation between the two countries.75

While there, he also showcased a new military train-

ing center which Moscow was constructing in Mana-

gua, the “Marshall Zukhov” military counternarcotics

training center, also in Managua,76 building upon a

counternarcotics cooperation agreement signed be-

tween the two nations in March 2013.77 Through the

new center, Russia is potentially able to interact not

only with Nicaraguan law enforcement officers, but

also those from other Central American countries,

as well as Ecuador and the Dominican Republic,

among others.

In September 2013, two Russian warships made

a port call in the Nicaraguan Pacific-Coast port of

Corinto, after visiting Cuba and passing through the

Panama Canal.78 At the end of October of 2013, Ni-

caragua was visited by a Russian delegation headed

by the Secretary of the Russian Federation Security

Council (and former head of the Russian intelligence

service) Nikolai Patrushev,79 resulting in the signing

of an agreement for Russian support in the modern-

ization of Nicaragua’s armed forces.80 Also emerging

from the Patrushev visit was an agreement facilitating

high-level consultations between the High Command

of Nicaragua and Russia’s Security Council, advanc-

ing the level of strategic cooperation between the two

countries.81

In conjunction with the Patrushev visit, in a man-

ner paralleling events of September 2008, two Russian

Tu-160s, made a trip to the region, first flying from

Russia to Venezuela, before conducting aerial maneu-

27

vers in the Caribbean and landing in Nicaragua. While

on return from Nicaragua to Venezuela, the bombers

caused an international incident when they made un-

authorized incursions into Colombian airspace in the

proximity of the Colombian island of San Andres and

the surrounding cays.82 This act that was seen by some

in Colombia as a message of Russia’s support to Nica-

ragua’s claim to the waters surrounding the islands,

and perhaps the islands and cays themselves.83 The

coincidence of the incursion with the visit of Patru-

shev (considered a hard-liner), raised the possibility

that the incursion was a signal sent to Colombia fol-

lowing coordination between Patrushev and Ortega,

although no concrete evidence substantiating such a

connection has emerged.

Later in October (possibly also linked to the Pa-

trushev visit), President Ortega requested, and the

Sandinista-dominated Nicaraguan parliament passed,

a resolution authorizing visits to Nicaragua by Rus-

sian warships, military aircraft and ground forces, as

well as authorizing Russian forces to conduct patrols

off of Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast near the Colom-

bian island of San Andres and surrounding cays,84 al-

though as of the date of this writing, the Russians had

not done so. Russia-Nicaragua military interactions

and announcements of future cooperation continued

to expand throughout 2014 as tensions between the

United States and Russia increased over the conflict

in the Ukraine. In February 2014, as noted previously,

Nicaragua was one of three Latin American countries

mentioned by Russian Defense Minister Shoigu as

candidates for establishing new Russian maintenance

bases in the Caribbean.85 In June 2014, Russia opened

a maintenance facility for military vehicles in Nicara-

gua in support of that nation’s mechanized brigade,

28

further allowing Russia to expand its military

presence there.86

In general, Russia-Nicaragua military cooperation

has paralleled other aspects of the re-engagement be-

tween the two countries that began in 2008. In 2013,

the two countries signed an agreement regarding Rus-

sian support for the modernization of the Nicaraguan

armed forces.87 Pursuant to that agreement, new Rus-

sian military equipment has begun to appear in Nica-

ragua, including two Mi-17 aircraft,88 BMP-1 armored

personnel carriers, BM-21 mobile rocket launchers,

PT-76 light armored vehicles, and announced nego-

tiations for Mig-29 fighter aircraft.89 Russia has fur-

ther donated equipment to the Nicaraguan military,

including $500,000 in first aid equipment donated

in January 2014,90 and has discussed selling Nicara-

gua Russian patrol boats and the Tigr light armored

vehicle.91

Russia military-to-military engagement also has

included sending Nicaraguan personnel to Russian

institutions for training,92 as well as conducting joint

counternarcotics operations on Nicaraguan soil. In

March 2013, for example, a joint Russia-Nicaragua

operation against a local drug gang resulted in the ar-

rest of 41 persons and the seizure of 10 “containers” of

cocaine.93

With respect to Russia-Nicaragua commercial ac-

tivities, by contrast to the significant amount of mili-

tary cooperation between the two countries since 2008,

trade between the two has been a modest $522 million,

with all but $18 million of that Nicaraguan imports of

Russian products.94 Of Nicaraguan exports to Russia

in 2013, 95 percent were comprised of three products:

oilseeds, coffee, and meat, in that order. Similarly, 80

percent of Russia’s exports to Nicaragua during the

29

period were cereals, with an additional 9 percent being

fertilizers.95 Specific commercial transactions between

Russia-Nicaragua are dominated by the donation of

goods, or their purchase by the Nicaraguan state with

concessional loans, followed by their resale within the

country. Key examples of such transactions since 2008

include Russia’s gift of 520 buses, 500 Lada-brand cars

and trucks,96 and 100,000 tons of wheat, as well as the

construction of a $41 million hospital.97

The largest project in which Russia has considered

participating in Nicaragua is the canal connecting the

Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the country. Possible Rus-

sian support for the canal, long desired in Nicaragua,

was a key discussion topic in Ortega’s trip to Moscow

in 2008,98 although the countries did not proceed for-

ward with the project at that time.99 In 2012, the initia-

tive shifted to an even more ambitious $40-$80 billion

canal project spearheaded by Chinese businessman

Wang Jing and his company Hong Kong Nicaragua

Development (HKND). Yet, despite the media atten-

tion given to the possibility of a leading role by the

Chinese government and banks in the project, Russia

also continues to pursue an interest in participating in

some fashion. When Russian President Putin made an

unscheduled stop in Managua as part of his July 2014

trip to Latin America, analysts speculated that Rus-

sian participation in the canal project was part of the

agenda.100 In a follow-up visit by a Russian delegation

in September 2014, the Nicaraguan civil defense au-

thority announced that Russia would provide equip-

ment to be used in the construction of the canal.101

Guatemala.

Within Central America, Guatemala is an outlier as

a Central American state which has maintained some

30

economic and diplomatic ties with Russia despite a

legacy of unsuccessful attempts by Marxist guerillas to

overthrow its conservative government.102 Although

Guatemala technically established relations with the

Soviet Union in 1945, political and other engagement

between the two countries remained limited during

Guatemala’s 30-year long civil war from 1960 through

1990, in which Russia was seen to back the insurgents

seeking to overthrow the Guatemalan government.103

Even after the peace accords of 1996, which put an end

to the Guatemalan civil war, the country conducted

diplomatic relations with Russia through Costa Rica

until 2007, when Russia established an embassy in

Guatemala City. In March 2010, Alvaro Colom be-

came the first Guatemalan president to visit Russia.104

The trip, however, occurred near the end of his term,

and Colom’s successor, General Otto Perez Molina,

has not shown a similar interest in diplomatic engage-

ment with the country.

With respect to economic interactions, Russian

companies have had a small presence in Guatemala’s

mining and petroleum sectors. In 2011, for example,

the Russian firm Solway purchased the Fenix fer-

ronickel mine near the town of El Estor.105 The result-

ing entity Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel has subse-

quently invested $450 million dollars in the sector.106

In petroleum, in July 2013, the Russian-backed Pana-

manian company Zacapa was granted a concession

by the Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines to

explore for gas and oil.107

Venezuela.

Venezuela, alongside Nicaragua and Cuba, has

arguably been one of Russia’s cornerstones for the

31

re-engagement that it has pursued with the region

since 2008. Although Venezuela lacks the legacy of

intergovernmental collaboration with Russia during

the Cold War that mark Cuba and Nicaragua’s rela-

tionship with Russia, Venezuela has partially com-

pensated for that through its willingness to support

Russian initiatives in the region, the magnitude of its

arms purchases from Russia, and the significance of

its oil reserves, in which Russian firms have shown a

strong interest.

The story of Venezuela’s contemporary engage-

ment with Russia began in 2006, with a focus on arms

purchases. The Venezuelan regime of former military

officer Hugo Chavez turned to Russia to buy arms

when the U.S. refused to sell the nation spare parts for

its F-16s fighter aircraft. Venezuela was motivated to

turn away from Western arms suppliers almost entire-

ly when the United States successfully prevented Eu-

ropean arms manufacturers from selling their product

to the country, based on agreements that those manu-

facturers had signed in order to incorporate U.S. tech-

nology in their own weapons. These sales108 became

the initial lynchpin of Venezuela-Russia cooperation,

allowing Venezuelan leader Chavez to simultaneous-

ly defy U.S. attempts to deny him arms, while keeping

his supporters within the Venezuelan military happy.

Against this backdrop, when U.S.-Russia tensions

escalated in 2008 over the crisis in Georgia, Chavez

was willing to make Venezuela available to Russia

as a platform through which the latter could engage

diplomatically with, and project, military forces to the

region in order to send the United States a warning

and potentially distract it from engaging in Georgia

by putting the United States strategically at risk in its

own “backyard.”

32

As noted previously, Nicaragua recognized the

pro-Russian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and

South Ossetia, and Venezuela was the lead actor to

receive Russia’s nuclear-capable Tu-160 supersonic

bombers when they deployed to the Western Hemi-

sphere in September 2008 amidst the escalating con-

flict. Similarly, 2 1/2 months later, Venezuela was the

first country in the region to receive the four-ship flo-

tilla of Russian warships led by the cruiser Peter the

Great. Naval exercises were conducted with the ships

before they moved on to visit Nicaragua and Cuba. In

each case, the Chavez regime showed that it was will-

ing to go beyond provocative anti-Western rhetoric

to host Russian military forces that the United States

might have perceived as menacing, with the risk of

provoking military action from the United States.

Despite Venezuela’s enthusiasm to receive Russian

military assets, the Russians, for their part, were care-

ful to ensure that, in sending a message to the United

States through their actions, they were not perceived

as excessively provocative. Prior to the arrival of the

Tu-160s, for example, Russia publicly announced that

they were not carrying nuclear weapons.109 Moreover,

when the naval flotilla arrived in Venezuela, Russia

cut short the scheduled 3-day exercise between the

ships and the Venezuelan navy, and denied a request

by Venezuelan President Chavez to visit the lead

Russian ship.110

Following the departure of the Russian naval flo-

tilla, the Chavez regime continued to remind the Unit-

ed States of its willingness to offer itself as a host for

Russian military and other activities in the Americas.

In March 2009, for example, Chavez announced that

he would allow Russia to use Venezuelan terrain to

base strategic bombers, presumably for use against

the United States. Yet, the island that he publicly men-

33

tioned for basing the aircraft, La Orchilla,111 was far

too small to permit the take-off of the Russian aircraft

in question, even if a runway was built from one tip

of the island to the other. This suggested that the an-

nouncement had been more a message to provoke the

United States than a serious initiative.

Such Venezuelan openness to military collabora-

tion with Russia has continued to the present day.

When Russian Minister of Defense Shoigu announced

in February 2014 that Russia would establish perma-

nent facilities in the region to receive and resupply its

military forces, it included Venezuela as one of the

three Latin American regimes to serve as a possible

host, along with Cuba and Nicaragua.112

Venezuela’s purchases of Russian arms, mentioned

previously as the launch point of the contemporary

close Venezuela-Russia relationship, has served as a

compliment to its willingness to host Russian military

forces. From 2001 through 2013, Russia sold Venezu-

ela over $11 billion in military goods,113 making the

country by far the principal purchaser of Russian

arms in the Western Hemisphere, accounting for over

two-thirds of the $14.5 billion in sales to the region by

the Russian arms supplier Rosoboronexport.114 Rus-

sia’s arms sales between 2006 and 2014 may be loose-

ly divided into three groups of purchases. The first

group of sales, with a value of approximately $4 bil-

lion, was focused on helicopters, fighter aircraft, and

small arms. Venezuela purchased 53 helicopters from

Russia, including 38 Mi-17V-5s, 10 Mi-35M2 attack

helicopters, and three Mi-26T2 heavy transports.115 In-

deed, the quantity of Russian helicopters sold to Ven-

ezuela was so great that in 2011, the Russian company

Transas announced that it was setting up a regional

center for helicopter instruction there.116 In addition to

34

helicopters, the first group of Venezuelan purchases

also included 24 Su-30 fighter aircraft and 100,000 Ka-

lashnikov rifles, as well as Russian assistance in build-

ing a factory in the country to assemble them.117

The second group of Russian arms sales to Ven-

ezuela, whose negotiation and delivery spanned the

period from roughly 2008 through 2011, included 12

Tor-M1 self-propelled air defense systems, Zu-23 anti-

aircraft guns, 12 9K58 Smerch multiple rocket systems,

2S23 120 millimeter (mm) self-propelled mortars, Igla-

S man-portable surface-to-air missiles,118 and T-72B1V

tanks, of which Venezuela eventually purchased

192.119 Other Russian systems acquired by Venezuela

during this period also included BMP-3 and BTR-8A

armored personnel carriers,120 Bal-E mobile coastal

defense missile systems, Buk-2ME and S-300VM An-

tey-2500 mobile anti-aircraft missile systems.121

The third group of sales, which were negotiated

as Chavez’ health deteriorated in 2012, was only par-

tially realized due to deepening economic problems

in Venezuela. This group included Russian fast attack

boats, submarines, and Yak-130 fighters to replace

Venezuela’s aging F-5s,122 as well as 10 Mi-28 NG

Night Hunter attack helicopters.123 Agreements for

even more arms purchases were signed in May 2014,

between the commander in chief of the Venezuelan

armed forces Carmen Meléndez Rivas, and the Vice-

president of the Russian Federal Military Technical

Cooperation Service, Andrei Boltsov, on the occasion

of the 10th Ruso-Venezuelan High-Level Intergovern-

mental Commission.124

With respect to the Russia-Venezuela commercial

engagement, Venezuela is Russia’s second largest

trade partner in the region behind Brazil, yet the rela-

tionship is extremely imbalanced. In 2013, for example,

35

all but $10 million of the $3.42 billion in Russia-Vene-

zuela bilateral trade was Venezuelan purchases from

Russia.125 With respect to the composition of Russian

exports to Venezuela, according to the United Na-

tions (UN) COMTRADE database, in 2013, 92 percent

of those exports were accounted for by three types of

goods: 59 percent of the total were arms, 26 percent

were vehicles (cars, trucks, and motorcycles), and 7

percent were electrical and electronic equipment.126

With respect to specific nonmilitary projects in

Venezuela, Russian companies have leveraged the

favorable political relationship between the two coun-

tries to build a significant presence in Venezuela’s oil

sector, although Russian companies operating there

have experienced numerous difficulties. In 2009, a

five-company Russian consortium committed to an

investment of $16.2 billion to develop the Junin-6 oil

block in the newly nationalized Orinoco tar sands,

with the resulting Russia-PdVSA (Petróleos de Vene-

zuela, S.A., the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natu-

ral gas company) venture operation named “Petromi-

randa.”127 The deal included payment of a $600 million

signing bonus to PdVSA.128 In addition, the Russian

oil company Rosneft (part of the Junin-6 consortium)

subsequently contracted with PdVSA for rights to the

Carabobo 2 block, making a royalty payment of $1 bil-

lion for those rights,129 while the Russian firm Lukoil

contracted for the Junin-3 block.130

As with other multinational firms, the Russian

companies in the Venezuelan oil sector experienced

delays in working with their Venezuelan partners to

invest and bring production on line.131 Due to such

frustrations, in January 2013, the Russian firm Sur-

gutneftegaz pulled out of the Junin-6 consortium,

selling its stake to Rosneft.132 In October 2013, Lukoil

similarly announced that it was withdrawing from the

36

country.133 As other Russian companies have pulled

out of oil operations in the Orinoco tar belt, Russian

petroleum activities in Venezuela have become in-

creasingly concentrated in the hands of the Russian

firm Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a former Sovi-

et-era intelligence operative close to Putin. Sechin’s

long-term interest and expanding stake in the Ven-

ezuela petroleum sector was illustrated in 2014 when

he sponsored the construction of a statue dedicated

to Chavez, in the late Venezuelan leader’s home town

of Sabaneta, and traveled to the town to dedicate it

personally.134 Indeed, in July 2014, the consolidation

of Russian oil activities in Venezuela in the hands of

Rosneft continued with the company’s purchase of the

Venezuelan assets of Weatherford International.135

In addition to petroleum, Russia also has a mod-

est presence in Venezuela’s mining sector, although,

there, as in the petroleum sector, its companies have

experienced difficulties. In January 2009, the Russian

mining company Rusoro formed joint venture conces-

sions with the Venezuelan government to develop the

Las Cristinas and Brisas minerals fields. The award

took by surprise the Canadian firm Crystallex, which

had applied for permits to develop the properties.136

Yet Rusoro did not fare much better in dealing with

the Chavez regime than had Crystallex, and by August

2012, Rusoro had become embroiled in a legal dispute

with the regime over its Venezuela operations.137

Nor have Russian projects in Venezuela been limit-

ed to arms, petroleum, and mining. Russia has report-

edly discussed a joint venture with the Venezuelan

government to construct a shipyard.138

In the financial sector, in 2009, Russia and Venezu-

ela announced a joint-capital bank to fund projects

in the country,139 with $4 billion in initial funds.140 Its

37

principal focus, to date, has been underwriting the

sale of Russian arms to the country,141 with loans of $2

billion in 2012 and $2 billion in 2013 to support such

transactions.142

Cuba.

From 1959, when Fidel Castro and his supporters

overthrew the Batista government and took power in

Havana, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,

Cuba served as Russia’s principal partner for engag-

ing with, and advancing, its strategic position in the

region. When Moscow sought to rebuild its relation-

ships with Latin America and the Caribbean prior to

its high-profile political and military moves in 2008,

it began with a low-key attempt to repair its relations

with Cuba.

During the Cold War period, Russia was Cuba’s

principal patron and ally, as well as its main collabo-

rator for advancing anti-U.S. revolutionary move-

ments in the third world, including Latin America, the

Caribbean, and Africa. For Russia, in the form of the

Soviet Union, post-Revolution Cuba was the principal

gateway in Latin America and the Caribbean for activ-

ities with state partners, insurgents, and other groups

to advance global communism and the strategic po-

sition of the Soviet Union.143 Russia reciprocated the

favor, providing not only billions of dollars in arms,

loans, and aid to Cuba, but also hosting tens of thou-

sands of Cubans to travel to Russia for education in its

universities.144

During the Cold War period, the Soviet Union

also maintained its most important overseas signals

collection facility at Lourdes, Cuba,145 housing an

estimated 3,000 Soviet intelligence specialists. With

38

respect to military support, between 1961 and 1991,

Russia provided Cuba with an estimated $16 billion

in arms, including T-55 and T-62 tanks; anti-aircraft

defenses; MiG-29, MiG-23, and MiG-21 fighters; Mi-

24, Mi-17, Mi-8, and Mi-14 helicopters, among other

equipment.146

Russia’s withdrawal from the region in 1989 cre-

ated significant financial hardship for Cuba for which

it was able to compensate only partly through help

from the PRC. Nonetheless, Russia’s withdraw left

lingering resentment within the Cuban leadership.147

With the election of Putin to the Russian Presidency,

the country began cautiously to rebuild its ties with

Cuba. Putin visited the country in December 2000, and

in September 2004, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov

made a visit to the country.148 Reciprocally, in Decem-

ber 2006, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque

visited Russia.149

When Russia began the current stage of its re-

engagement with Latin America in 2008, it featured

Cuba prominently in its outreach, alongside of Ni-

caragua and Venezuela, as noted previously. Rus-

sian President Medvedev made a point to visit Cuba,

although only for 1 day, during his November 2008

Latin America trip and met with both President Raul

Castro and his brother, Fidel.150 Raul Castro recipro-

cated with a trip to Russia 2 months later, in January

2009, 22 years after the last visit by a Cuban president

to the country, that of his brother, Fidel.151

Despite such activity, Cuba’s embrace of Russia’s

re-engagement with the region in 2008 was subtly

less enthusiastic than that by Venezuela and Nicara-

gua, arguably reflecting lingering resentment over

the economic hardship caused by Russia’s precipi-

tous withdraw from the region in 1991. By contrast to

39

Venezuela and Nicaragua, Cuba did not follow Russia

and diplomatically recognize the republics of Abkha-

zia and South Ossetia in August 2008 when they broke

away from Georgia.152 Similarly, it was Venezuela,

rather than Cuba, that initially hosted the two Russian

Tu-160 bombers when they deployed to the region in

September 2008. Nor did Cuba participate in the na-

val exercise which Venezuela and Russia conducted

in the Caribbean, although the flotilla did make a port

call in the Port of Havana, Cuba, following conclusion

of the exercise.153

As Russian re-engagement with the region contin-

ued in the years which followed, Cuba continued to

play an important role. Following his departure from

the Russian presidency in May 2012, Medvedev paid a

new visit to Cuba in February 2013, this time as Prime

Minister. When Putin traveled to the region in 2014 in

the context of the escalating crisis in the Ukraine, he

made Cuba the first stop on his trip.154

With respect to military cooperation, since 2008,

Cuba has consistently been included in virtually all

Russian deployments to the region, although typically

with Venezuela playing the leading role. Because of its

proximity to the United States, Cuba has also repeat-

edly played a role as host for the real and proposed

positioning of Russian military assets in the region, as

well as being the recipient of modest quantities of new

Russian arms and military-to-military personnel and

training interactions.

Beyond such temporary deployments and with

Cuba’s proximity to the United States, the nation may

be resuming its Cold War role as host for Russian col-

lection of signals intelligence (SIGINT) against the

United States. In February 2014, as the crisis in the

Ukraine escalated, the Vishnya-class Russian SIGINT

40

ship Viktor Leonov (SSV-175) conducted operations in

the Caribbean, then made a port call in Havana har-

bor.155 With respect to land-based SIGINT facilities, in

July 2014, Russia indicated that it would re-activate

and send personnel to the facility at Lourdes, Cuba,

just 155 miles from the United States, which it used to

monitor the United States during the Cold War.156

Beyond intelligence collection, Cuba has also been

mentioned by Russia as a candidate for the servicing,

or even basing, of offensive military assets. In March

2009, Chief of Staff of Russia’s long range aviation Ma-

jor General Anatoly Zhikharev captured the attention

of the international press when he spoke publicly of

the possibility of using Cuba (in addition to Venezu-

ela), as a base for Russian military aircraft. Russian

defense officials quickly qualified his remarks, saying

that the General had been speaking only hypotheti-

cally.157 Although Zhikharev’s comments were not fol-

lowed up by concrete action, the theme re-emerged in

February 2014, when Shoigu indicated that Cuba was

one of three Latin American countries (the other two

being Venezuela and Nicaragua) in which Russia was

considering facilities to receive and resupply its war-

ships and other military assets.158

With respect to post-2008 arms sales, Moscow is

helping Cuba to maintain and upgrade its legacy Cold

War era Russian military equipment. In 2011, for ex-

ample, Russia built an assembly line for the produc-

tion of 7.62-mm rounds for Kalashnikov rifles at the

Che Guevara weapons factory in the eastern part of

the country, after having constructed a similar facil-

ity in Venezuela.159 The nation has also resumed gifts

and sales of arms on credit to Cuba. In April 2013,

for example, Gerasimov visited the country and an-

nounced that Russia would give Cuba a $650 million

41

credit for the purchase of eight military aircraft: two

Tupolev Tu-204s, three Antonov An-158s, and three

Ilushyn-96-400 aircraft.160 In December 2013, Russia

announced that it was restructuring Cuba’s $35 billion

Cold War debt,161 with Russian President Putin final-

izing the write-off of all but $3.5 billion during his July

2014 visit to Havana.162

Russia and Cuba are also collaborating in various

strategic technology areas. For a number of years, Rus-

sia and Cuba have collaborated in the area of medical

research,163 including biotechnology.164 During Putin’s

July 2014 visit to the region, Cuba also agreed to host

ground facilities for the Russian GLONASS (Global

Navigation Satellite System), which competes with

the U.S.-based global positioning system (GPS).165

With respect to other types of commercial coopera-

tion, Cuba-Russia ties have been more modest than

suggested by the history of close military and political

cooperation between the two countries. Russia-Cuba

trade was almost $179 million in 2013, ranking it 15th

among Russia’s trading partners in Latin America,

and less than a 10th of Cuba’s $1.88 billion in trade

with China.166 Of the Russia-Cuba trade, all but $32

billion were Cuban imports of products from Rus-

sia.167 According to the UN COMTRADE database,

27 percent of those Russian exports to Cuba in 2013

was equipment for nuclear reactors, 24 percent was

vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles), and 11

percent was railway equipment, followed by rubber

goods and electrical machinery.168 At the individual

firm level, Russian companies are present in the Cu-

ban gas and oil sector, the electricity sector, logistics

and construction, the Cuban nickel industry, sugar

refining, and tourism among others. Cuba also hosts

Russian-Cuban and Cuban-Russian business councils.

42

During 2008 to 2014, Russia expanded its presence

in the Cuban petroleum sector, with the Russian firms

Gazprom and Rosneft drilling for oil in the Gulf of

Mexico.169 The Russian firm Zarubezhneft is also pres-

ent, drilling in the Boca de Jaruco oilfield in coopera-

tion with Cuba’s state oil company Cupet.170

With respect to other infrastructure projects, Rus-

sia has also agreed to fund the construction of four

200 megawatt power stations to boost capability at

the Cuban Maximo Gomez and East Havana thermo-

electric power plants, with the work to be done by

the Russian firm Inter Rao.171 Russian companies are

also participating in the construction of a new inter-

national airport at San Antonio de los Baños.172 They

are also reportedly involved in upgrading the port of

Mariel, 173 which Cuba hopes to turn into a major lo-

gistics hub, with potential investment from Russian

and other companies in the special economic zone

associated with the port.174

For years, going back to the Soviet period, Rus-

sian purchases of Cuban sugar have also been an

important part of the relationship between the two

countries.175 Nonetheless, although the Cuban govern-

ment has sought foreign investment in its sugar in-

dustry, to date, Russian companies have not sought to

participate in the sector.176

With respect to tourism, Cuba has long been a fa-

vored destination for Russians seeking to escape their

nation’s cold climate, with an estimated 70,000 Rus-

sian tourists visiting Cuba in 2013.177 Yet, in recent

years, Russia has been engaged in negotiating visa-

free access to other countries in the Caribbean and

Latin America, to facilitate travel by its citizens to a

broader array of tourist destinations.

43

Guyana.

Russian activities in Guyana have principally con-

centrated on the bauxite mining, although the Russia-

Guyana relationship also reflects the political legacy

of Russian courtship of Guyanese leftists during the

Cold War. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), un-

der which Guyana achieved independence from Great

Britain, was significantly left-of-center, and Cheddi

Jagan, one of its two founding fathers, was openly

Marxist, defying the United States to maintain rela-

tions with Cuba after that country’s revolution in 1959.

Afro-Guyanese independence leader Forbes Burn-

ham, who came to power after Jagan, openly courted

the Soviet Union for loans and fostered ties between

his People’s National Congress (PNC) and the Soviet

Communist Party.178

The continuity of the Russia-Guyana relation-

ship from the Cold War period to today can be seen

in Guyana’s most recently retired President, Bharat

Jagdeo. Jagdeo, who still is believed to exercise con-

siderable influence in his country, also has personal

ties to Russia, having studied economics there, receiv-

ing a degree from the People’s Friendship University

of Russia in 1990.179 In February 2010, Jagdeo made a

politically charged, albeit little recognized, state visit

to Russia in which he spoke warmly of his host and

openly invited Russia to expand its presence in the

Caribbean.180

In terms of Russia’s commercial relationship with

Guyana, the International Monetary Fund lists trade

between the two countries as negligible, with less than

$1 million in imports to, and exports from, the two

countries in 2013.181 Bauxite dominates the Russia-

Guyana trade relationship, with 95 percent of Guya-

44

nese exports to Russia in 2013 categorized as mineral

ores, followed by a small quantity of animal products

and textiles. Reciprocally, 60 percent of Russian ex-

ports to Guyana were rubber products; 18 percent,

iron and steel; and 8 percent, vehicles (cars, trucks,

buses, and motorcycles).182

Since the 1970s, the Soviet Union, and now Russia

as its successor, have purchased Guyanese bauxite.183

The physical presence of Russian companies in Guy-

ana’s bauxite sector, however, dates to 2004, when the

mining company Russia Aluminum (RusAl) signed a

joint venture agreement with the Guyanese govern-

ment to conduct mining operations in the country,

creating the Bauxite Corporation of Guyana (BCGI). In

2006, RusAl acquired Guyana’s state-owned Aroaima

Mining Company,184 transforming BCGI into a sub-

sidiary of RusAl. Following RusAl’s consolidation of

control over Guyana’s bauxite assets and a 2007 visit

to Russia by President Jagdeo, Russia also sent a team

to evaluate possible construction of a hydroelectric fa-

cility to support the processing of the bauxite ore,185

although the plans did not result in a concrete project.

RusAl’s relationship with the Guyanese community

since establishing itself in the country have been dif-

ficult, with multiple strikes and a decision by BCGI

to “de-recognize” the Guyana Bauxite & General

Workers Union (GB&GWU), with whom it had been

negotiating.186

Although Russia has not highlighted its relation-

ship with Guyana as part of its relationship with

Latin America, it has continued to focus attention

on Guyana in recent years. This includes the write-

off of $56.7 million in Guyanese debt to Russia in

February 2013.187

45

Jamaica.

As a fellow part of the Caribbean basin, the history

and nature of Jamaica’s relations with Russia resemble

those of Guyana, as described earlier. Although the Ja-

maican socialist government of Michael Manley, who

came to power in 1972, developed friendly relations

with Cuba and, to some degree, the Soviet Union,188 a

relatively deeply rooted and widespread spirit of anti-

Communism inhibited closer USSR-Jamaica relations

during the Cold War, and left Russia with a very lim-

ited base upon which to build relations today.189

The contemporary Russia-Jamaica commercial re-

lationship is dominated by bauxite. The International

Monetary Fund recorded only $93 million in trade be-

tween the two countries in 2013, of which almost all

was Jamaican exports to Russia.190 Correspondingly,

99 percent of these exports were categorized as inor-

ganic chemicals, presumably bauxite.191 The physical

presence of Russian companies in the Jamaican baux-

ite sector began in 2007 when RusAl merged with its

smaller rival, the Siberian Urals Aluminum Company

(SUAL), as well as the aluminum assets of the multina-

tional Glencore, to form a new company United RusAl

with a 65 percent stake in the Jamaican company Alu-

minum Partners (Alpart), as well as a 93 percent stake

in the West Indies Alumina Company (Windalco).192

Russian bauxite operations in Jamaica experienced

difficulties almost from the beginning. With the fall

in global aluminum prices in the late-1990s, United

RusAl was force to scale back its Jamaica operations,

shutting down its Kirkvine and Alvine facilities in

March 2009,193 and closing Windalco in March 2010.194

Nonetheless, the company also took advantage of the

depressed market to expand its position in the sector,

46

buying out the 35 percent stake that its Norwegian

partner, Norsk Hydro, had in the Alpart project,195

while also acquiring the Jamaican government’s 7

percent stake in Windalco in 2014,196 forgiving debts

owed to RusAl by Jamaica, in exchange its equity in

Windalco.197

As in Guyana, RusAl’s perceived heavy-handed

style in managing its bauxite operations in Jamaica

gave rise to some political tensions in the country. In

June 2014, the government threatened to strip RusAl

of its concession in the Kirkvine and Alvine refiner-

ies if they did not resume operations.198 Nonetheless,

beyond the issue of its plant closures, RusAl’s rela-

tionship with Jamaican society has generally been

positive. Following practices common among other

multinational companies operating in the country, the

company employed Jamaicans in management posi-

tions, and built up goodwill with its workers and the

surrounding community by providing public works

and social benefits.199

Beyond mining, Russia’s relationship with Jamaica

has also focused on tourism. In 2012, the two countries

agreed to establish nonstop flights.200 An estimated

10,000 Russian tourists traveled to Jamaica in the first

8 months following the start of the flights in 2013, a 644

percent increase over the same period during the prior

year.201 Nonetheless, the number of Russian tourists

traveling to the country continues to be low.202

Ecuador.

Although Russia’s relationship with Ecuador has

not been as high-profile as that with other ALBA

countries such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, it has

maintained a modest but important relationship with

47

Ecuador across a range of activities and sectors in-

cluding military cooperation, petroleum, infrastruc-

ture construction, banking, and even nuclear power.

As with other parts of Latin America and the Carib-

bean, Russia began to expand its relationship with

Ecuador in November 2008, the wake of tension with

the United States over the crisis with Georgia. Dur-

ing that month, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa

met in Caracas with his Russian counterpart, Medve-

dev, who had traveled to Venezuela to participate in

a summit of ALBA countries. In October 2009, Correa

followed up by traveling to Moscow (the first time an

Ecuadorian leader had ever done so),203 and returned

for a second time in October 2013.204 To date, however,

neither Russian President Putin, nor his predecessor,

Medvedev have visited Ecuador.

With respect to military interactions, Russian arms

sales to Ecuador begun later than those to neighboring

Peru and Colombia. One of Russia’s first major end

item sales to Ecuador was a $22 million transaction,

selling 2 Mi-17Es to the Ecuadorian air force,205 with

the contract signed during Ecuadorian President Cor-

rea’s October 2009 trip to Moscow, and delivered in

January 2011.206 During Correa’s second trip to Mos-

cow in October 2013, Russia sought to expand mili-

tary cooperation, offering a $200 million loan for the

purchase of additional Mi-17s and other equipment.207

With respect to Russia-Ecuador commercial rela-

tions, the two countries registered $1.28 billion in

trade in 2013. Indeed, Ecuador was also one of the few

Latin American countries to enjoy a significant trade

surplus with Russia, with $1.13 billion in exports to

the country, vice $150 million in imports from it that

year.208 According to the UN COMTRADE database,

99 percent of Ecuador’s exports to Russia were concen-

48

trated in four categories: fruit (68 percent of the total),

live trees and plants (23 percent), seafood (4 percent),

and miscellaneous edible items (4 percent). Similarly,

90 percent of Russian exports to Ecuador fell into four

categories: mineral fuels and oils (49 percent), fertil-

izers (23 percent), iron and steel (11 percent), and

cereals (7 percent).209

With respect to specific projects, the Russian com-

pany Gazprom is present in the oil sector, with a con-

tract to operate in Block 6 in the Gulf of Guayaquil,

including a commitment to invest a total of $1.5 bil-

lion to develop it.210 Russian energy firms and banks

currently play a role in the renovation of Ecuador’s

electricity production and transmission infrastructure

(although Chinese banks and companies dominate

the 10 projects currently underway). Two ongoing

initiatives, are partially financed by Russia’s Ex-Im

bank and include the supply of components by the

Russian firm Inter Rao: (1) the $1 billion Cardenillo

power plant in the province of Azuay (with a contract

signed in 2014, and work on the $528 million facility

begun in 2011); 211 and (2) a $195 million thermoelectric

power plant.212 The Ecuadorian government has also

publicly expressed on multiple occasions its interest

in developing a nuclear power capability with Rus-

sian support, including a 2009 agreement between the

two countries,213 as well as a visit to Ecuador by the

Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom.214

Nor has Russia-Ecuador cooperation been limited

to energy and military cooperation. When Ecuadorian

President Correa and Russian President Putin met in

October 2013, they discussed an estimated $1.5 bil-

lion in collaborative projects, including a 1,800-mile

rail link from the capital city of Quito in the Andes

Mountains, to the Pacific Ocean. As with Russia and

49

Venezuela, there has also been financial cooperation

between Russia and Ecuador in support of commer-

cial projects, with Ecuador’s central bank and Russia’s

Vnesheconombank signing a cooperation agreement

in June 2012.215

As with Mexico and other countries, when Rus-

sia suspended agricultural purchases from the Unit-

ed States and the EU, Ecuador was one of the Latin

American countries which expanded its own exports

to Russia to make up the difference.216

Colombia.

The close U.S.-Colombian relationship under Co-

lumbian President Alvaro Uribe has arguably inhibit-

ed Russia’s cautious engagement with the country, yet

Russia, nonetheless, continues to maintain low-level

military and economic interactions with Colombia,

while its current President, Juan Manuel Santos, has

indicated some desire to expand the Russia-Colombia

relationship.217

At the political level, Russia and Colombia’s mu-

tual lack of emphasis on their relationship is illus-

trated by the fact that in recent years, no Colombian

president has traveled to Russia, nor has a Russian

president visited Colombia. Yet, Russia has indirectly

indicated its interest in the country. According to a

Colombian source, between approximately 2012 and

2014, the Russian embassy in that country doubled

its size to approximately 25 persons. In the context of

Colombia’s close relationship with the United States

in the post-Cold War era, Colombia has generally per-

ceived Russia as a threat, due to its association with

leftist governments surrounding the country (includ-

ing Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, and Nicaragua), as

50

well as for its presumed support during the Cold War

era to groups fighting against the Colombian govern-

ment, such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de

Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

or FARC).218

On the other hand, Russia has, at times, also been

a vehicle through which Colombia has sought to off-

set its dependence on the United States. The country’s

first major military acquisition from Russia, for ex-

ample, dates to 1996, when the government of Colum-

bian President Samper became angry with the United

States for decertifying his government on the issue of

counterdrug cooperation (and for having blocked him

from entering the United States because of his alleged

drug ties). Samper turned to Russia to acquire Mi-17

military transport helicopters.219 In 1997, Colombia

signed a $42 million contract for 10 Mi-17s,220 eventu-

ally acquiring a total of 24 of the helicopters, as well

as Antonov-32 high-wing transport aircraft. Although

the acquisition created an opening for sending Colom-

bian pilots and other personnel to Russia for training

on the new systems. Although the Russians initially

established a presence in Colombian bases such as

Tolemaida for the maintenance of Russian-made he-

licopters and aircraft, in recent years such activities

have been outsourced to the Colombian company,

Vertical de Aviación.221

In a similar fashion, the Colombian air force does

not own the Russian Antonov-32 aircraft that it uses,

but rather leases them. Although Russian aircraft are

generally well regarded by Colombian officers for the

simplicity of their maintenance under harsh field con-

ditions, the Colombian military has reportedly been

reluctant to acquire more Russian equipment. One

reason, according to Colombian defense experts, is to

51

avoid complicating the logistics system, since acquir-

ing Russian equipment would introduce more com-

plexity into the nation’s logistics system. Arguably,

this would create difficulties in interoperability with

the United States and other allies, a consideration that

is becoming increasingly important to Colombia as it

expands its role in multilateral international missions

such as UN peacekeeping.222

Besides aircraft, Colombia is reportedly also pro-

ducing Russian BTR-80 armored vehicles under li-

cense. However, the role of Russian companies and

personnel in this activity is not clear.223

With respect to Colombia-Russia military-to-mil-

itary personnel interactions and leadership interac-

tions, the most significant event in recent years was

the 2008 trip by then-Columbian Defense Minister

Juan Manuel Santos to Moscow to attend an Interpol

conference. Indeed, the visit was the first time that a

Colombian defense minister had traveled to Russia.224

Beyond the Santos visit, a small number of Colombian

officers have traveled to Russia for special forces and

other training, yet by contrast to the number who are

regularly sent to the PRC National Defense University

in Changping, China, no Colombians in recent years

have been sent to Russia’s senior staff academy.

In general, Russia has cautiously explored oppor-

tunities to improve its relationship with Colombia

when they have presented themselves. According to a

Colombian source, during the 2013 U.S. budget crisis,

the U.S. Government informed Colombia that it might

have to cut approximately $50 million in security as-

sistance programs from the country, prompting Rus-

sia, and later the PRC, to offer to fill the deficiency if

the Colombian government wished.225 According to

the same source, the Colombian government did not

pursue the offer.

52

Russia’s sales of a significant quantity of arms to

neighboring Venezuela is viewed with concern, more

because of Venezuelan instability than because of a

perceived credible offensive capability by the Venezu-

elan military against its Colombian neighbors. Simi-

larly, Colombians are concerned by the previously

mentioned plans announced in February 2014 by

Shoigu to re-establish military facilities in Cuba, Ven-

ezuela, and Nicaragua,226 as well as Russia’s reoccupa-

tion of the electronic surveillance facility at Lourdes.227

These actions are collectively perceived as a strategic

encirclement of pro-U.S. Colombia by Russia through

its allies Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

Indeed, the November 2013 invasion of Colombian

airspace by two Russian bombers was seen in Colom-

bia as signs of Russian hostile intent, reinforcing the

message sent by Russia’s deployment of nuclear-ca-

pable bombers and warships to the region in 2008.228

Beyond military affairs, Russia-Colombia non-

governmental narcotics and other criminal ties are a

growing concern. The current presence of the Russian

mafia in Colombia is believed to be less than during

the 1990s at the high-point of power of the Cali and

Medellin cartels. Incidents suggesting ongoing activ-

ity by Russian criminal groups in Colombia include

the 2013 murder of a Russian businessman under

mysterious conditions in Barrio Kennedy locality of

Bogota, as well as the implication of Russians in the

supply of components for an operation construct-

ing narco-submarines near Buenaventura. Colom-

bia is also believed to be the principal source of co-

caine for the Russian market, which is believed to be

expanding.229

In terms of trade and investment, Russia’s ties with

Colombia are very modest. In 2013, Russia-Colom-

bia bilateral trade was a mere $382 million, making

53

Colombia Russia’s 12th largest trading partner in the

region. This volume was also insignificant in compari-

son to Colombia’s $10.5 million in bilateral trade with

the PRC that year, or even its $5.2 million in 2013 trade

with India.230 With respect to the composition of the

trade, according to the UN COMTRADE database, in

2013, 64 percent of Colombian exports to Russia were

“live trees and plants” (presumably flowers), followed

by 11 percent “miscellaneous edible preparations,” 7

percent coffee, and 5 percent “edible fruit.” In a pat-

tern seen in Russian engagement with other countries

in the region, Russian exports to Colombia were dom-

inated by fertilizers (46 percent), mineral fuels and

oils (12 percent), iron and steel (11 percent).231 There

have been attempts at the official level to strengthen

such interactions, including the Colombian-Russian

Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Trade,

Scientific and Technological Cooperation,232 but thus

far with minimal impacts.

With respect to specific projects, one Russian com-

pany in the petroleum sector, Lukoil, had a significant

presence in Colombia, but withdrew from the coun-

try in 2012. While the official reason given was that it

needed funds to develop a new oil find in the Middle

East,233 another contributing factor may have been ex-

tortion demands and other difficulties that Lukoil ex-

perienced in its area of operation.234 In 2012, the Rus-

sian energy company TNK, also considered investing

in Colombia,235 but did not pursue its interest.

In the mining sector, as in petroleum, Russian in-

terests are reportedly conducting exploratory opera-

tions in the east of the country near the Venezuelan

border, but without a major formal presence to date.236

For the Russians, one of the minerals of interest is

coltan, used in modern smartphones, and believed to

be mined and sold in small quantities by the FARC.

54

Russia also had hopes of marketing a number of en-

ergy projects in Colombia, including the construction

of hydroelectric power facilities by companies such as

Inter Rao, as well as the sale of nuclear reactors. To

date, such major projects have not gone forward.

On the other hand, because of the crisis, Russia

reportedly engaged in conversations with Colombian

agriculture producers about purchasing meats and

other products to compensate for European sources of

supply lost because of sanctions and increasing ten-

sions over the Ukraine. Nonetheless, as of the time of

this writing, no major expansion of Colombian food

exports to Russia had occurred.

Peru.

Peru today is one of Russia’s most important arms

buyers and military partners in Latin America. It has

also maintained a significant political relationship

with Russia in the contemporary period, although one

which has received less scrutiny than Russia’s rela-

tionships with the ALBA regimes.

With respect to political interactions, Russian Pres-

ident Medvedev included Peru as one of four stops

in his November 2008 trip to Latin America, designed

to highlight Russia’s re-engagement with the region.

Almost 4 years later, in September 2012, Peruvian

President Ollanta Humala met with his Russian coun-

terpart, Putin, during the APEC leaders’ summit in

Vladivostok, Russia.237 The two met again in July 2014

in Brazil, when Putin’s presence there for the BRICS

summit coincided with Humala’s visit to the country

for the CELAC forum.238 Four months later, in Novem-

ber 2014, Humala made a state visit to Russia en route

to the APEC summit in China, meeting with his coun-

55

terpart, Putin. In doing so, Humala made history as

the first Peruvian president ever to visit Russia.239

One of the cornerstones of the Peru-Russia rela-

tionship for more than 40 years has been military ties.

The legacy of Russia’s presence in Peru dates to the

populist military regime of General Juan Velasco Al-

varado (1968-75), who pursued a quasi-socialist policy

during his time in power, nationalizing many key in-

dustries, and turning to Russia as the principal sup-

plier of Peruvian military hardware. Much of the now

aging equipment in Peru’s military inventory dates

to this period, including 280 T-55 tanks (of which 50

remain in service), as well as an Mi-8 helicopter, 30

BRDM-2 armored cars, 12 BTR-60 armored personnel

carriers, 24 BM-21 GRAD, and two BM-13 multiple

launch rocket vehicles. Nonetheless, purchases of Rus-

sian equipment continued after the end of the Velasco

regime, including the acquisition of 24 MiG-29 fighter

aircraft in 1996 by the government of Alberto Fuji-

mori,240 as well as Su-25 ground support aircraft and

Mi-25 attack helicopters,241 among other systems. The

legacy of collaborating with Russia remains particu-

larly strong today among senior officers in the Peru-

vian Army, many of whom studied in the country as

part of military exchange programs.

As Russia began re-engaging with Peru in the

post-2008 period, it leveraged the abundance of Cold

War era Russian military hardware in the Peruvian

inventory, as well as the goodwill within the senior

Peruvian Army leadership toward Russia, to win new

military contracts and rebuild relations. The new ac-

quisitions included a $106 million contract signed in

August 2008 for the upgrade of Peru’s aging fleet of

Mig-29s,242 of which 19 are still in service,243 with sub-

sequent commitments for up to $400 million more in

56

aircraft upgrades.244 The country also won a contract

to maintain and restore aging Russian helicopters. In

October 2012, four aging Mi-25 attack helicopters were

restored to service by Russian maintenance personnel

as part of this program.245

In 2010, following the Peruvian government’s dif-

ficulties with the acquisition of Chinese-made MBT-

2000 tanks,246 its army decided to acquire six Mi-171

and two Mi-35 P helicopters in support of operations

in Apurimac and Ene River Valley (VRAE), site of op-

erations by the terrorist group, Sendero Luminoso. In

December 2013, the Peruvian military signed a con-

tract to acquire an additional 24 Mi-171 helicopters in

a contract valued at $528 million, in support of increas-

ing the mobility of its forces operating in the region.247

The contract also included $180 million in offsets in

support of Peru’s economy and defense sector, includ-

ing the co-production of parts,248 and the construction

of a base to maintain the helicopters near the Peruvian

Air Force Base in the La Joya district of Arequipa.249

By 2013, Russian military sales to Peru were ad-

vancing on all fronts. Highlighting the importance of

the relationship for Russia, Shoigu made Peru one of

two stops in his October 2013 visit to the region, with

the other being Brazil.250 During the visit, there were

discussions of the sale of 110 T-90S tanks to Peru to

replace the country’s aging stock of Russian T-55s,

as well as a possible factory for the manufacture of

military and civilian trucks by Russian manufacturer

Kamaz, although both transactions were subsequent-

ly postponed until after the 2016 Peruvian national

elections.251 In October 2013, Peru was also evaluating

the purchase of the Russian BTR-80 armored person-

nel carrier, although as of the time of this writing, the

sale had not gone forward.252 Similarly, the Peruvian

57

army entered discussions concerning the acquisition

of Russian man-portable Igla air defense munitions

to replace their aging stock of Pechora missiles.253 Be-

yond military sales, Russia has also begun to expand

significantly its military education cooperation with

Peru, offering in 2012 to sponsor 200 Peruvian military

officers who would study in Russian universities.254

Paralleling initiatives in Nicaragua, in May 2012

Russia also announced a new counterdrug coopera-

tion initiative with Peru.255 In March 2013, as part of

that effort, director of the Russian Antinarcotics State

Committee Victor Ivanov presented a counternarcot-

ics action plan to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala,

including not only the training by Russians of Peru-

vian police antinarcotics units, but also the planning

and execution of “joint strategic operations.”256

By contrast to the substantial level of Peru-Russia

political and military engagement, economic ties be-

tween the nations are relatively modest. As of 2013,

Peru was Russia’s 11th largest trading partner in the

region, with a mere $403 million in bilateral trade.

With respect to Russian exports to Peru, mineral fertil-

izers comprise over 50 percent. Reciprocally, approxi-

mately 54 percent of Peruvian exports to Russia were

agricultural products, while 41 percent were mining

products.257

Peru and Russia have also collaborated in the space

arena. In November 2013, Russia launched two Peru-

vian microsatellites into low earth orbit, PUCP-Sat 1

and Pocket PUCP, from the Russian Yasny cosmo-

drome.258 In addition, as with a number of other Latin

American states, Peru is reportedly investigating the

use of the Russian GLONASS satellite navigation sys-

tem (a rival to the Western system GPS).259

58

In the energy sector, Russian companies have

played a modest role in Peru, with the Russian pe-

troleum company Gazprom reportedly interested in

participating in the construction of a new gas pipeline,

as well as a possible liquid natural gas compression

plant in the country.260 Beyond petroleum, Russia and

Peru have also had some discussions regarding nucle-

ar power, including a visit to Peru by representatives

of Rosatom in March 2013, as well as the inclusion of

the topic during a state visit by Humala to Russia in

November 2014.261

In the energy and construction sectors more

broadly, the Russian companies Inter Rao and Pow-

er Machines have reportedly been pursuing work in

Peru, 262 but to date, no major projects have emerged.

During his November 2014 trip to Moscow, Russian

President Putin met with the head of Russia’s state-

run company Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, to

discuss Russian participation in a planned transconti-

nental railroad link across Brazil and Peru,263 although

to date the Chinese have been the principal drivers of

the project.

In May 2014, Peru and Russia also launched talks

for a free trade accord,264 with negotiations still in

progress at the time of this writing.

Brazil.

Both economically and more broadly, Brazil is ar-

guably Russia’s most important partner in the region,

although in specific areas, Russia’s partnerships with

countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and

Peru may overshadow the relationship with Brazil.

With respect to Russia-Brazil political engagement,

the two nations have a special partnership which, by

59

contrast to Russia’s other relationships in Latin Amer-

ica and the Caribbean, goes beyond the region in both

its political and economic scope. Indeed, the “global”

nature of the partnership was manifested in the “Stra-

tegic Alliance Agreement” signed between those two

states in October 2005,265 as well as the membership of

both in the BRIC forum (established in 2006 and later

renamed “BRICS” to include South Africa).

Interactions between Russian and Brazilian leaders

in recent years has been regular, both as part of, and

independent from, the BRICS forum. Russian Presi-

dent Medvedev included Brazil in his four-nation trip

to Latin America in November 2008, then returned to

Brazil in April 2010 when the BRIC forum was hosted

in the country, then returned again in March 2013 as

Prime Minister.266 More recently, Russian President

Putin traveled to Brazil in July 2014 to attend the

BRICS summit in Fortaleza, making it the cornerstone

of his own four-nation Latin America trip. Brazilian

President Dilma Rousseff interacted with her Rus-

sian counterpart, President Putin, during her atten-

dance at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in

December 2012.267

The political nature of the interaction between

Russia and Brazil was further highlighted in March

2014, when Brazil abstained from its criticism of Rus-

sia in a key UN vote over the activities of the latter in

Crimea.268 By contrast to fellow BRICS partner China,

Russia explicitly supports Brazil’s candidacy for a per-

manent seat on the UN Security Council.269

With respect to military interactions, Russia has

placed great emphasis on Brazil as an arms market,

with $306.7 million in arms sales to Brazil between

2008 and 2012. Russian arms sales to Brazil include

a $150 million270 contract in 2008 for 12 Mi-35 attack

60

helicopters, the last of which were delivered at the

end of 2014,271 as well as an agreement in 2012 to sell

Brazil seven Ka-62 medium transport helicopters.272 In

support of Brazil’s purchase of the Russian helicop-

ters, Russian Helicopters, Inc. and the Brazilian firm

Odebrecht signed an agreement in 2013 to establish

a maintenance facility in Brazil to perform assembly,

maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations on such

helicopters.273 Beyond these deals, Brazil’s arms pur-

chases from Russia also include negotiations for three

batteries of the Pantsir-S1 truck-mounted air defense

system, in a contract that could be worth $1 billion.274

In addition, Brazil has acquired other weapons from

Russia, including the Igla-S man-portable antiaircraft

missile, many of which were delivered to Brazil in

March 2010.275

In addition to such sales, Brazil is rumored to be

interested in acquiring the new supersonic BrahMos

missile, co-developed by Russia and India.276 While

such an acquisition would have a dramatic strategic

impact on the region, it has not yet gone beyond the

phase of general interest. In addition, Russian compa-

nies have been active participants in the annual LAAD

defense expo which occurred in April 2015 in Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil, as well as other military expositions in

the region. In March 2014, the Brazilian firm Odebrecht

and Russian firm Rostec signed an agreement on the

sidelines of the FIDAE military air show in Chile.277

Despite such successes, Russia’s advances in its

defense relationship with Brazil have arguably been

much less than hoped. Russia lost its bid, for example,

to sell Brazil the Sukhoi-35 fighter as part of the coun-

try’s FX-2 fighter modernization effort,278 with Brazil

ultimately choosing the Swedish Gripen NG.279 Simi-

larly, Brazil’s acquisition of Mi-35 attack helicopters

61

was terminated in 2014 after the delivery of only the

original 12 units. Russian difficulties in selling arms

to Brazil have occurred in part, because the country

has its own domestic arms industry which, in some

sectors, competes with equipment that Russia would

like to sell. As an example, in 2010, the Brazilian

federal police entered into conversations with Roso-

boronexport over the possible purchase of the GAZ-

2975 Tigr light armored vehicle for use in riot control

missions.280 However, the sale was vetoed because it

competed with a similar Brazilian-made vehicle, the

Guarani. In a similar fashion, Russian interest in sell-

ing Brazil a nuclear submarine was also unsuccessful,

reportedly because Russia was unwilling to transfer

a sufficient amount of technology to the Brazilian

defense industry.281

With respect to military-to-military personnel in-

teractions and leadership visits, senior Russian offi-

cials periodically travel to Brazil, such as the October

2013 trip by Defense Minister Shoigu. Such contacts

also include lower-level interaction, including train-

ing provided by Russian instructors in May 2010 in

Brazil on the use of the then recently acquired Igla-S

man-portable antiaircraft missiles.282

With respect to the economic relationship between

the two countries, as noted previously, Brazil is by

far Russia’s most important trading partner in the re-

gion, with its $5.9 billion in bilateral trade with Rus-

sia in 2013, accounting for 31 percent of all Russian

trade with the region for that year. The relationship

is a trade surplus in Brazil’s favor, with $3.3 billion

in Brazilian exports to Russia, and $2.6 billion of Bra-

zilian imports. A substantial portion of this trade on

both sides is agricultural goods, with 94 percent of

Brazilian exports to Russia comprised of agricultural

62

products, including beef and wheat,283 and 65 percent

of Russian exports to Brazil comprised by fertilizer,

although Russia also exports significant quantities of

metals and high tech machinery to Brazil as well.284

In the petroleum sector, Russian firms have very

little presence in Brazil’s newly developed offshore oil

fields. One exception is Russian firm Rosneft285 whose

subsidiary TNK is involved in a joint venture the Bra-

zilian firm HRT Participacoes em Petróleo in the Soli-

moes river basin.286 In addition, Gazprom reportedly

has opened up a representative office in the country,

with plans in investing in Brazilian offshore oil.287 In

mining, Russian companies such as RusAl and Ru-

soro are also relatively absent in Brazil. One of the few

examples occurred in 2011, when the Russian mining

and coal company OAO Mechel entered an $800 mil-

lion joint venture with Brazilian iron company Usina

Sidurigica do Para.288

In energy, in Brazil, as in Argentina, Russia has

sought to participate in the possible expansion of the

nation’s nuclear power generation capacity,289 with

the Russian commercial nuclear agency Rosatom sign-

ing a memorandum of understanding with the Bra-

zilian private energy and construction firm Comarga

Correa in July 2014 regarding the construction of a

nuclear waste storage facility in Brazil and possible

Russian participation in a future Brazilian nuclear re-

actor.290 Reflecting the structural similarities between

Russia and Brazil in select sectors, Russian construc-

tion companies have been unable to penetrate Brazil’s

electricity infrastructure market, where they have had

to compete directly with capable, well-financed and

well-connected Brazilian competitors such as Ode-

brecht. Nevertheless, undeterred, Russian companies

have expressed hopes of playing a role in the con-

63

struction of hydroelectric and thermoelectric power

facilities in the country.291

In the commercial aircraft sector, competition ex-

ists between Russian and Brazilian companies. Russia

reportedly blocked the Brazilian company Embraer

from access to the Russian private jet market because

the commercial side of the Russian aircraft man-

ager Sukhoi was afraid that Brazilian aircraft would

compete with Sukhoi’s candidate for the regional jet

market, the “Interjet Superjet.”292 On the other hand,

there are a number of Brazil-Russia partnerships in

the manufacturing and technology sectors, including

joint ventures by the companies Kaspersky Laborato-

ries, Biocad, and Qiwi.293

Russian firms are venturing into Brazil’s financial

market, albeit in a limited fashion. In June 2012, for

example, the Russian investment firm VTB Capital

announced that it was cooperating with the Brazilian

firm BTG Pactual to establish an investment presence

in the Brazilian market.294 Finally, as with other coun-

tries in the region, Brazil has positioned itself to bene-

fit from Russia’s suspension of agricultural purchases

from European suppliers as tensions expanded over

events in the Ukraine in the summer of 2014.295

Bolivia.

As with the other countries of ALBA, Russia has

enjoyed a close relationship with Bolivia in the post-

2008 era, although arguably not as close as its rela-

tionships with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, or

even as close as its relationships with key non-ALBA

partners such as Brazil and Peru. At the political level,

Bolivian President Evo Morales traveled to Moscow

in July 2013 for a forum of gas exporting countries,

64

where he met with his Russian counterpart, Putin.296

Morales also met with Putin as part of a special din-

ner for visiting heads of state in July 2014.297 Sig-

nificant presidential level diplomacy also includes a

2009 trip to Russia by Morales to meet with President

Putin’s predecessor, Medvedev,298 as well as a meeting

between Morales and Putin in Caracas, Venezuela, in

April 2011. Such interactions have also included on-

going lower-level visits such as the trip by Bolivian

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca to Moscow in

May 2011.

On the other hand, unlike fellow ALBA nations

such as Venezuela, it is of note that Bolivia did not

diplomatically recognize the breakaway republics of

South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the 2008 Georgia

civil war. The country is also one of the few nations in

the region to continue to require a visa for Russians to

enter the country, although the procedure by which

they request the visa upon arrival at a port of entry

makes the requirement only pro forma. Russia-Bolivia

engagement includes both military and commercial

activities, yet to date, few major projects contemplated

between Russia and Bolivia have gone forward on ei-

ther front.

With respect to arms sales, from 2009, the Bolivian

military was in discussions with Russia for the pos-

sible purchase of 10 Mi-17 transport helicopters,299 as

well as the acquisition from Russia of a $30 million

Antonov Business Jet (Antonov BJ)300 to serve as the

President’s executive aircraft, (announced in Sep-

tember 2009) and a credit of $250 million to cover the

purchases.301 As part of the deal, the two countries

also discussed establishing a region-wide center for

aircraft maintenance at Airbase 92, near the Bolivian

city of Cochabamba,302 although the plan never went

65

forward. In the end, neither the helicopter purchase

nor the purchase of the Antonov business jet were

realized. The Bolivian military reportedly decided

that it did not have sufficient resources for the heli-

copters, while President Morales decided to purchase

a Falcon 900EX (the type used by one of his favorite

soccer teams, Manchester United) as his presidential

aircraft.303 Despite these setbacks, the foreign sales

organization for Russian arms, Rosoboronexport, has

had some successes in Bolivia. In March 2014, for ex-

ample, a commission from the Bolivian government

traveled to Russia to evaluate a more modest Russian

offer to sell Bolivia two Mi-17s.304 As with other na-

tions in the region, Bolivia has maintained a regular

interchange with senior Russian military officials,

including an August 2013 trip to Bolivia by Deputy

Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Major Gen-

eral Oleg Leonidovich Salukov.305

With respect to commercial interactions more

broadly, Bolivia and Russia registered only a token

$17 million in trade in 2013.306 Of Bolivian exports to

Russia in 2013, 73 percent were inorganic chemicals,

with almost the entire remainder composed of fruit

and nuts. Reciprocally, 71 percent of Russian exports

to Bolivia similarly were in the category of inorganic

chemicals, with most of the remainder composed of

paper products.307

As with other Latin American countries, Rus-

sia has also expressed interest in launching satellites

for Bolivia as well as selling the country nuclear re-

actors.308 To date, however, such projects have not

gone forward.

In the petroleum sector, both Russian firms Ros-

neft and Gazprom have been active in the country.

The relationship began to improve greatly in Decem-

66

ber 2008 when Gazprom signed a $4.5 billion explora-

tion agreement with the Bolivian government.309 Also

in December, Russia spent $4 million on a study of the

Bolivian gas industry, and later indicated its intention

to open a joint Russia-Bolivia center for gas explora-

tion.310 Gazprom today has a joint venture in Bolivia

with Total Oil to explore the Azero block, with a total

pledged investment of $130 million. Rosneft, for its

part, committed to explore for petroleum in Bolivia in

November 2013,311 and in July 2014, during a meeting

with Bolivian President Evo Morales in Brazil, Russian

President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed that the company

was still considering an investment in the country.312

In mining sector, Russian firms are reportedly in-

terested in exploiting Bolivia’s lithium deposits, con-

centrated in the Uyuni salt flats,313 believed to be the

largest in the world. To date, as with numerous other

interested international actors, the Russians have not

been successful in securing a concession from the

Bolivian government to do so.

Argentina.

Argentina historically has maintained a strong re-

lationship with Russia as an economic, and, at times, a

security partner, despite the country’s history of ten-

sions with Russia over its perceived support for left-

ist groups regarded as threats by the nation’s military

government.314

In the 1980s, when the United States suspended

grain sales to the former Soviet Union, Argentina was

one of the countries which significantly expanded the

export of foodstuffs to the country to compensate for

the loss.315 Indeed, much of the export-oriented cereals

sector in Argentina today is a product of the demand

67

for exports to the Soviet Union during that period.

U.S. support for the British position in the 1982 war

for control of the Falklands/Malvinas islands also

reportedly strengthened ties between the Argentine

military government and the Soviet Union.316

Argentina today is also the host of Latin America’s

largest population of ethnic Russians who immigrat-

ed to the country during the late-19th and early-20th

centuries.317

The continuing importance of Argentina to Russia

in the contemporary context was highlighted by then

President Medvedev’s stop in the country in April

2010 en route to attend the second BRIC summit in

Brazil,318 as well as inclusion of the country in Rus-

sian President Putin’s July 2014 trip to the region.319

The relationship has also included some political co-

operation, in addition to military and economic ties.

Argentina abstained, for example, on a 2014 UN vote

condemning Russian activities in the Crimea. Recipro-

cally, President Putin indicated, during multiple visits

on multiple occasions, support for Argentina’s claim

against Britain over the Falkland Islands.320

With respect to military cooperation, Russia has

long sought to sell a broad array of arms to Argentina,

including Mi-17 and Mi-35M helicopters, Igla man-

portable missiles, high-speed missile boats and patrol

craft, Buk-M1-2 and Tunguska air defense systems,

military vehicles, and rifles.321 Argentina’s defense

budget has been very limited in recent years, however.

One of the few major purchases actually to occur was

a 20 billion euro deal for five Mi-171 E-model helicop-

ters with an associated package for maintenance and

pilot training.322 In 2012, Rosoboronexport announced

Argentine interest in the follow-on purchase of three

Kamov Ka-226T helicopters.323 In the same year, Ar-

68

gentina also announced construction of a new ship

with Russia for transportation to the South Pole.324

In December 2014, the Argentine defense ministry

signed an agreement to buy four Neftegaz-class sup-

ply vessels from the Russian state-owned enterprise

Zarubezhneft in a deal valued at $8.1 million.325

With respect to commercial interactions, Argentina

was Russia’s third most important trade partner in the

region after Brazil and Venezuela, registering $1.54

billion in bilateral trade in 2013. Of this amount, only

$334 million was Russian exports to Argentina, while

$1.21 billion was Russian imports from the country,326

due to the importance of Argentina as a provider of

foodstuffs to Russia. In 2013, 88 percent of Argentine

exports to Russia were agricultural goods, with meat

the leading category. Reciprocally, 65 percent of Rus-

sian exports to Argentina that year were mineral fu-

els; with another 22 percent, fertilizers; and 4 percent,

components for the nuclear industry.327

With respect to specific nondefense projects, nota-

ble activity between the two countries have occurred

in the space sector, nuclear and hydroelectric power,

and petroleum, among others. In the field of space, in

2010, Argentina signed an accord that committed it to

participation in Russia’s GLONASS satellite naviga-

tion system.328 In the nuclear power domain, Russian

atomic energy agency Rosatom has expressed interest

for a number of years in participating in helping Ar-

gentina to expand and modernize its nuclear power

generation facilities.329 In July 2014, during his visit

to Argentina, Russian President Putin indicated that

his country was participating in the bidding process

for Argentina’s next nuclear reactor, Atucha III,330 al-

though Argentina signed a $2 billion agreement with

China to finance the long delayed reactor just weeks

after the Russian declaration.331

69

In the petroleum sector, Russian company Gaz-

prom is working with Argentine state oil company

Enarsa on the production of liquefied natural gas

(LNG).332 With respect to oil exploration and drilling

operations, when the Argentine government nation-

alized the assets of Spanish company Repsol YPF,

Russia was one of the countries that it approached to

potentially take over the property.333 In the end, how-

ever, the Argentine government contracted with the

U.S. energy company Chevron, rather than Russian

companies, to develop the concession.334 In addition,

Russian companies Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil,

along with other international players, have been in-

vited by Argentine authorities to invest in the devel-

opment of the Vaca Muerte shale oil fields, believed to

be one of the largest in the region.335 Although Russian

activities in Argentina’s petroleum sector was not a

focus of Russian President Putin’s July 2014 visit to

Argentina,336 Gazprom chairman Alexander Medve-

dev reportedly discussed the matter with a visiting

Argentine trade delegation just 2 months later.337

Russian companies are also competing for a num-

ber of energy industry infrastructure projects in the

country. Gazprom, for example, has expressed inter-

est in participating in the construction of a $1.5 billion

gas pipeline between Argentina and Bolivia.338 Sepa-

rately, Russian firm Inter Rao is competing to build

the Chihuido I and II hydroelectric facilities in the

Argentine province of Neuquén with the backing of

the Russian financial institution Gazprombank.339 In-

ter Rao has already won a contract for the preliminary

design phase of the $2 billion Chihuido I facility.340

The Russian firm Power Machines similarly played a

role in the construction of the Caracoles hydroelectric

plant, which opened in 2008, and in 2011, signed a con-

70

tract for the supply of equipment to the Punta Negara

power plant.341 Power Machines was further part of a

consortium which sought a role in the construction of

the Jorge Copernic and Nestor Kirchner hydroelectric

facilities on the Santa Cruz River. The firm ultimately

lost the bid to the Chinese Gezouba group.342

In agriculture, as with Brazil and other South

American nations, Argentina has also sought to take

advantage of Russia’s suspension of agricultural pur-

chases from Europe due to the escalating crisis in the

Ukraine. In September 2014, Argentina sent a delega-

tion to negotiate expanded meat exports to Russia.343

Other Russian commercial interests in Argentina re-

portedly include interest by Russian truck producer

Kamaz in the Argentine market,344 as well as Ener-

gomashexport,345 RusHydro,346 and Russian finan-

cial firms including Sberinvest Russian Bank, Aterra

Capital, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund.347

Russia-Argentina commercial engagement even

involves the media. In October 2014, in a public cere-

mony, the Argentine President Cristina Fernández de

Kirchner announced that Russia TV would be broad-

cast in Argentina as a free public channel.348

Paraguay.

The Paraguay-Russia relationship traditionally has

been dominated by Paraguayan food exports to Rus-

sia, and traditionally has not been overtly political.

Although the nation has considered the purchase of

Russian arms, including a 2011 Russian offer to sell six

combat aircraft for its air force349 and transport aircraft

for its national police,350 Paraguay has not yet bought

Russian end items. Nor has there been a significant

Russia-Paraguay military relationship.

71

With respect to commercial interactions, bilateral

trade between Paraguay and Russia in 2013 was a

modest $269 million, making the nation Russia’s 13th

largest trading partner in the region. Virtually all Par-

aguayan exports to Russia during the year were agri-

cultural products, with 57 percent of the total value

being the export of meat.351 Indeed, Russia has been

the major purchaser of Paraguayan beef, accounting

for 77 percent of the country’s exports.352 Reflecting

the importance of the relationship, Russia even helped

Paraguay to repair and modernize one of its meat pro-

cessing facilities in 2012 to support Paraguayan beef

exports to Russia.353 Paraguay was one of the coun-

tries hoping to benefit from the suspension of Russian

beef purchases from the United States and Europe in

2014.354 Reciprocally, 95 percent of Russian exports to

Paraguay in 2013 was fertilizer.355

Beyond agricultural trade, Russian nuclear energy

agency Rosatom reportedly has visited the country

multiple times, including an attempt to interest Para-

guay in purchasing technology to develop its uranium

into the refined material yellowcake, usable for nucle-

ar reactors. To date, no public project has emerged

from the talks.356

Uruguay.

As with Paraguay, the most significant dimension

of Uruguay’s relationship with Russia has been exports

of meat to Russia, although in 2013, the PRC replaced

Russia as Uruguay’s most significant extra-regional

purchaser of beef.357 In political terms, the Uruguay-

Russia relationship has not included the amount of

high-level contacts as other relationships mentioned

in this monograph, although Russian President Pu-

72

tin did meet his Uruguayan counterpart, Jose Mujica,

in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in July 2014, along with

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bolivian

President Morales, in a special dinner sponsored by

Argentine President de Kirchner.358

With respect to arms purchases, although Uruguay

has limited resources to buy military hardware, Russia

has sold some military items to the country. Uruguay

was, for example, one of the first nations in the region

to purchase the Russian Tigr light armored vehicle,

with the Uruguayan national police acquiring three of

the vehicles in 2011 as part of a force modernization

program.359 Uruguay also uses Russian Ural heavy-

duty trucks in its military inventory, acquiring eight of

these vehicles in August 2012.360 In addition, in 2012,

the Uruguayan police bought $1.2 million in Russian

small arms as part of that force modernization.361

In addition to the Uruguayan police, as of late-2014,

the nation’s military was reportedly considering the

acquisition of Russian Yak-130 training aircraft, and

possibly Russian Saburov or Steregushchy class naval

patrol vessels in a deal that would have included Uru-

guayan meat in barter as part of the transaction.362

With respect to the broader economic relation-

ship, in 2013, Uruguay registered only $166 million in

bilateral trade with Russia in 2013, all but $1 million

were exports, the vast majority of them agricultural

goods.363 In 2013, 51 percent of Uruguay’s exports to

Russia were meat products, with dairy goods account-

ing for an additional 33 percent.364

With respect to nuclear energy, Uruguay has ex-

pressed interest in cooperating with Russia to develop

a reactor for electricity generation.365 To date, nothing

has come of the initiative. In petroleum, Russian firm

Gazprom has expressed interest exploring for oil and

73

gas off of the coast.366 Lukoil has expressed a similar

interest, but to date, nothing has come of these initia-

tives.367 In the domain of agriculture, as with other

countries in the region, Uruguay indicated in July 2014

its intention to expand such exports in lieu of Russia’s

suspension of food purchases from Europe.368

Chile.

As one of the closest allies of the United States in

the Southern Cone, Chile’s interactions with Russia

have been minimal.369 Like many other nations in the

region, during the Cold War, conservative Chilean

military governments looked at Russia with suspi-

cion due to its presumed support for leftist groups in

their country.370 Nonetheless, the return of Michelle

Bachelet to the Chilean presidency in March 2014 with

the backing of a far more left-of-center coalition has

opened the door for a significant expansion of Chile-

Russia engagement.

Prior to 2014, the most recent visit by a Russian

president to Chile was Putin’s trip to Santiago in No-

vember 2004 to meet with then-Chilean President Ri-

cardo Lagos. With Bachelet’s return to the Presidency

enabled by left-of-center parties such as the Chilean

Communist Party, however, the level and tempo of

diplomatic interactions have increased markedly. Two

months after Bachelet’s March 2014 inauguration,

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov made an official visit

to Chile.371 Six months later, President Bachelet met

with Putin on the sidelines of the APEC leaders’ sum-

mit in Beijing, in a dialogue that Putin subsequently

described as “intense.”372 The Bachelet-Putin meet-

ing also produced a commitment for Chilean Foreign

Minister Heraldo Muñoz to travel to Russia to follow-

74

up on issues raised by the presidential discourse.373

Moreover, Bachelet has also reportedly invited Putin

to visit Chile.374

With respect to military affairs, Chile’s interaction

with Russia historically has been minimal. In the do-

main of arms sales and associated training and main-

tenance contracts, Chile has consistently relied on U.S.

and European military equipment. Indeed, one of the

few Chilean purchases of Russian arms occurred dur-

ing the Cold War era, when Chile’s Marxist president

Salvador Allende purchased DShK machine guns

from the Soviet Union. Ironically, the weapons were

used by the Chilean military in deposing Allende on

September 11, 1973, including in the attack on the

presidential palace, La Moneda.375 More recently, in

2009, Chile announced its intention to acquire five Mi-

17 helicopters from Russia in a contract valued at $80

million, prompting the U.S. Secretary of Commerce

to express his disillusionment in uncharacteristically

negative terms.376 Although Chile, like Brazil and Ven-

ezuela, reportedly has also been interested since 2008

in the BrahMos missile, jointly developed by India and

Russia, there have been no specific announcement in

the public domain about doing so.

With respect to military-to-military contacts, there

have been almost no recent, high-level visits between

Chilean and Russia defense officials. Nor have there

been significant academic interchanges or joint exer-

cises between the countries.377 Nonetheless, the warm-

ing of relations under the second Bachelet adminis-

tration in Chile has also carried over to the defense

sector, with the previously noted April 2014 visit to

Chile by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, including

a meeting with Chilean Defense Minister Jorge Burgos

in which the “potential for military exchanges” was

discussed.378

75

With respect to trade, Chile was only Russia’s

ninth largest partner in the region, with $752 million

in bilateral trade recorded in 2013. While not insignifi-

cant, such a level of commercial interchange contrasts

unfavorably with Chile’s $33.9 billion in trade with

the PRC the same year, or its $3.90 billion in 2013 trade

with India.379 With respect to the composition of the

trade, 45 percent of Chilean exports to Russia during

this period was seafood, while another 33 percent was

fruit and nuts. Of Russian exports to Chile, 87 percent

were comprised of rubber products, fertilizer, and

mineral fuels, in that order.380

In the space sector, Russia has collaborated with

Chile to reactivate the Pulkovo astronomical observa-

tory located at the El Roble mountaintop in Chile.381

In energy, the firm RusHydro has been involved in

minor projects in the country, such as one for electric-

ity generation from wave action in 2011.382 Chile has

discussed interest in a Free Trade Agreement with

Russia,383 but to date, the initiative has not borne fruit.

IMPACTS ON THE REGION AND ON

THE UNITED STATES

As an economic phenomenon, Russia’s re-engage-

ment with Latin America and the Caribbean is modest

by comparison to the size, scope, and rate of expan-

sion of China’s commercial and military presence dur-

ing the same period. Moreover, Russia’s future ability

to finance arms purchases, construction projects, pe-

troleum, and mining activities in the region is likely

to be seriously limited by long-term downward pres-

sures on the price of petroleum, the export of which

is a key source of revenues for the Russian state, as

well as a source of resources for firms such as Ros-

76

neft, Lukoil, and Gazprom as they pursue projects in

Latin America and the Caribbean. It is probable that

the resources available to Russia will also continue to

be limited by the adverse effect of economic sanctions

from the United States and Europe.

Such limitations notwithstanding, since 2008, Rus-

sia has demonstrated a clear and persistent willing-

ness to expand its political, military, and economic

footprint in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to

do so in a manner that does not shy away from project-

ing military force close to U.S. borders, or engaging in

political and security cooperation in the region in a

fashion that explicitly challenges the United States.384

While Russia’s activity may be on a small scale and

limited to a handful of states and sectors, its pres-

ence will likely be a persistent facet of the new glob-

ally-interconnected strategic environment currently

reshaping the region.

Economic Impacts.

In commercial terms, the impact of Russia’s re-en-

gagement with Latin America is concentrated on a rel-

atively small group of countries, including the ALBA

regimes, plus Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. Those im-

pacts are also concentrated on a limited number of

economic sectors, including military sales, petroleum,

atomic and hydroelectric energy generation, mining,

and agriculture. By contrast to Chinese trade with

the region, Russia’s manufactured products, such as

Lada cars and buses and Kamaz trucks, have not sig-

nificantly penetrated Latin American and Caribbean

markets except in those special cases such as Cuba or

Nicaragua, where they have been given as gifts, or ac-

cess has been granted on politically favorable terms.

77

Even in sectors such as petroleum and mining,

in which Russia has some presence in the region, its

companies have proven to be as vulnerable to the risks

of Latin American markets as their Western counter-

parts. In some countries, including Venezuela and

Nicaragua, select Russian companies such as Rosneft

may have received special access because of the coun-

try’s political relationship with the host government.

Yet even so, such activities, including oil investment

in Venezuela’s Orinoco tar belt, arms sales, and partic-

ipation in the Nicaragua Canal, each depend on Rus-

sian financing, the availability of which is limited by

Russia’s mediocre economic circumstances,385 made

worse by the effects of persistently low oil prices and

expanding international sanctions.386

By contrast to the expanding presence of Chinese

companies in the region387 and the associated growth

of Chinese soft power through the hope of commer-

cial benefit,388 Russia does not appear to be on the path

to displace U.S. companies from commercial markets

in the near future, nor to exert significant influence

over Latin American and Caribbean states through

their hopes for access to Russian markets, investments

and loans.

Strategic Impacts.

Despite the aforementioned limitations, Russia’s

presence in Latin America nonetheless significantly

impacts the strategic U.S. position in Latin America.

Such impacts do not, however, come from Russia

alone, but the way in which Russian re-engagement

with the region interacts with the activities of other

extra-hemispheric actors in Latin America and the

Caribbean to alter the dynamics of the region.

78

Such impacts may be divided into three categories:

1. Undermining the disposition of key actors in the

region to work with the United States on trade, secu-

rity, and other initiatives, both within the region, and

beyond it.

2. Isolating strongly pro-U.S. regimes such as

Colombia and Chile.

3. Arming, contributing to the survival of, and

politically emboldening anti-U.S. regimes in the re-

gion currently represented by the states of ALBA

and Argentina, including collaboration of these re-

gimes in hosting Russian military forces, and activi-

ties in the region that present strategic threats to the

United States.

Through commercial and security collaboration,

Russia gives states such as Brazil and Peru options

other than working with the United States or the EU as

their principal security partner, as well as giving them

alternatives to U.S.-led initiatives to address problems

of importance to the region from trade and devel-

opment, to narcotrafficking and organized crime, to

standards for democracy and human rights.

Engagement with Russia, in conjunction with other

actors such as China, has also undermined, in subtle

ways, U.S.-led concepts for multilateral organization

in the Americas such as the OAS and the Inter-Ameri-

can system. While Russia has not explicitly promoted

alternative forms of sub-regional organization that

exclude the United States such as UNASUR, CELAC,

and ALBA, it has been more receptive to engaging

with these multilateral organizations, than it has to

working with the OAS, and that has contributed to

the perceived functionality and importance of these

organizations.

79

Beyond the region itself, the increasing indepen-

dence of such actors in the Americas makes it diffi-

cult for the United States to mobilize coalitions to act

with authority outside the region, from votes in the

UN to the imposition of international sanctions. While

difficulties such as Mexico and Chile’s opposition

to a UN-sanctioned role that Iraq cannot be blamed

on Russia,389 the interest of Latin American states in

working with Russia undermines the U.S. position in

more subtle ways. In the summer of 2014, for example,

Russia’s ability to turn to Latin America as a food sup-

plier allowed it to defy U.S. and European sanctions

over its actions in the Ukraine, and reciprocate by

cutting off Russian imports of European agricultural

products.390

Beyond such impacts on coalition formation, Rus-

sian engagement with the region on the United States

also adversely impacts pro-U.S. states such as Colom-

bia, Chile, and even Honduras, which arguably per-

ceive themselves as increasingly surrounded by pro-

Russian states, and threatened by Russia’s activities

in the region. In the case of Colombia, Russia’s close

political, military, and economic relations with the

three ALBA states that surround it (Venezuela, Ecua-

dor, and Cuba), and perceived historic Russian ties to

groups that fight against the Colombia government

internally, such as the FARC and the ELN, increase

the Colombian government’s sense of encirclement

by hostile forces, and its interest in informal security

guarantees from its traditional ally, the United States.

For some in Honduras, the prospect of renewed Rus-

sian engagement with neighboring El Salvador, in

combination with the strong Russian position in Nica-

ragua and Cuba, raises similar fears of “encirclement.”

With respect to the ALBA states, the economic vi-

ability of regimes such as the Bolivarian government

80

of Venezuela arguably is enabled more by loans and

support from the PRC than from Russia. Nonetheless,

Russian activities reinforces, and sometimes compli-

ments, the impacts of Chinese engagement in select

sectors such as petroleum, arms, and construction, and

provides political support for the anti-Western proj-

ects of these countries in a way that the PRC, to date,

has been reluctant to do. As suggested earlier, Russian

arms and investment thus make these regimes some-

what more viable, and potentially more dangerous to

their neighbors.

In turn, the viability of these regimes, and their

willingness to host Russian military and irregular ac-

tivities, creates an opportunity for Russia to operate

in the region in a manner that threatens the United

States in the hemisphere when it wishes to do so. Dur-

ing a conflict involving Russia in another theater, for

example, such allies present Russia with options to act

in Latin America and the Caribbean so as to force the

United States to divert attention and resources away

from its activities in other parts of the globe. Examples

of such possible actions include basing or resupplying

nuclear-capable military assets in countries in close

proximity to the United States, such as Venezuela,

Cuba, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. Other possibilities in-

clude supporting military action against a U.S. ally,

such as a Venezuelan occupation of historically con-

tested Colombian territory on its border, or a Nicara-

guan incursion against Costa Rica.

As noted previously, sending such a message was

arguably one of the principal motives behind Russian

deployments of its Tu-160 bombers, and later war-

ships, to the Caribbean in 2008, as well as the more

recent proposals for base access and to conduct long

range patrols in the Caribbean.391

81

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. LEADERSHIP

In general terms, Russian re-engagement in Latin

America and the Caribbean demonstrates the impor-

tance of considering not only the challenges to U.S.

national security that emerge from Latin America

itself, but how extra-regional actors with objectives

adverse to the United States, such as Russia, may di-

rectly or indirectly impact U.S. national security, and

hemispheric security, by acting there.

In broad terms, this analysis reinforces the need

for U.S. decisionmakers to consider Latin America in

strategic terms, rather than focusing on its individual

challenges, such as drugs, crime, and immigration, as

law enforcement or developmental issues to be man-

aged. With the end of the Cold War, the United States

has arguably ceased to seriously consider Latin Amer-

ica as a source of potential challenges beyond issues

of crime and migration. The United States has fallen

into the illusion that Latin America and the Caribbean

are isolated from the global strategic landscape, rather

than a fundamental part of it. Even if the endogenous

threats to U.S. national security may be minimal, the

ideological orientations of governments of the region,

and their relationships with extra-hemispheric pow-

ers such as Russia, may take on new relevance for

U.S. national security as a product of what happens in

other parts of the world.

At a policy level, and within the Department of

Defense (DoD), the U.S. response to the new engage-

ment in the hemisphere by Russia and other extra-

regional actors should begin with a detailed analysis

of how the latter might attempt to build upon and em-

ploy its presence in the region under a broad range of

82

scenarios. Such scenarios should include how Russia,

in conjunction with (or in opposition to), other global

actors, might act in the region in the near-term, as well

as what it could do in a future in which it is engaged in

a major conflict with the United States (including the

use of military force in, or from the region).

Ideally, analysis of such scenarios should include

consideration of variants with a range of assumptions

about how other major global actors may be oriented

toward both Russia and the United States, such as

whether or not China would collaborate with Rus-

sia in the region in the context of global hostilities

with the United States. The analysis should include

an evaluation of both the likelihood and gravity of

the consequences contemplated, as well as indicators

for detecting the course of action, leveraging associ-

ated opportunities, and countering or mitigating its

adverse effects.

In a conflict scenario, in evaluating whether Latin

American states would risk openly assisting a compet-

itor such as Russia against the United States, analysts

should also consider conditions under which such an

anti-U.S. regime in the region might calculate that the

United States might not prevail in the broader conflict,

or might not be able or willing to impose consequenc-

es for such behavior. Beyond assessing the possibility

of Latin American states providing direct assistance to

Russia during a global conflict, such as access to bases

or intelligence support, analysts should also consider

ways in which states of the region could impact the

outcome of the global conflict by withholding coop-

eration, such as not supporting the U.S. position on

the crisis in international forums such as the UN, not

contributing personnel or resources to an internation-

al coalition deployed to the conflict zone, not provid-

83

ing intelligence support to the United States, or not

allowing the United States to use its territorial waters

or airspace.

Finally, using the specific scenarios generated, the

United States should consider strategies that it could

use to counter Russian actions in the Western Hemi-

sphere during a conflict, in shaping the conflict in the

lead-up to it, and in shaping the strategic environment

in the present day to mitigate or reduce the probabil-

ity of undesirable outcomes. In developing strategies

to manage the identified risks and pursue associated

opportunities, the United States should consider col-

laboration with like-minded extra-hemispheric actors,

whose values and interests in resisting the Russian

advance in Latin America coincide with that of the

United States. Japan, South Korea, and India each are

arguably candidates to collaborate with the United

States in select areas. Each has commercial interests

in the region, each is adversely impacted by the ex-

pansion of Russia’s presence globally, and each has an

interest in strengthening its own ties with the United

States in the face of the expansion of rivals in its own

region, which include not only Russia, but also others

such as the PRC.

At the level of combatant commands, U.S. South-

ern Command and U.S. Northern Command, and

their respective Army components, U.S. Army North,

and U.S. Army South, decisionmakers should be par-

ticularly attentive to the risks and opportunities pre-

sented by individual countries. In Peru, for example,

the United States should build upon its strong support

to the nation as a provider of intelligence and train-

ing in counterterrorist and counterdrug operations

to strengthen its relationship as partner of choice, by

contrast to Russia, whose relationship arguably has

84

focused principally on equipment, which may not be

dedicated to those areas of the country, such as the

VRAE-M, which need it most.

In Cuba, the United States should be attentive to

the current regime’s interest in securing the lifting of

economic sanctions, particularly as the economy of

its Venezuelan patron crumbles. Such interest may be

leveraged to help persuade Cuba not to cooperate with

Russia in ways which would create strategic threats

to the United States, on the grounds that such coop-

eration might create problems for the political case

in the United States for the lifting of sanctions. Such

politically sensitive Cuban actions might include per-

mitting Russia to have renewed access to the signals

intelligence collection facility at Lourdes, or signing

agreements for Russian military aircraft and warships

to have regular access to Cuban facilities.

In Nicaragua, which similarly seeks to balance

its relationship with the United States with that of

Russia, the United States might emphasize that con-

tinued Nicaraguan access to U.S. markets under the

provisions of the Central American Free Trade Agree-

ment could be jeopardized by providing base access

to Russian warships, permitting Russian warships to

conduct large-scale “counternarcotics” patrols from

Nicaraguan ports, or expanding Russian intelligence

operations in the country, even if in the name of coun-

terdrug patrols. At the same time, the United States

should also consider increasing the presence of U.S.

military forces in the Caribbean, providing implicit

security guarantees to, and increasing the level of,

operational coordination with those nations in the re-

gion most intimidated by growing Russian presence

in the region, including Colombia, Costa Rica, and

Honduras.

85

The paradox of contemporary Russian re-engage-

ment with Latin America and the Caribbean is that the

Russian political and military initiatives, which coin-

cided with the 2008 conflict in Georgia and the current

conflict in the Ukraine, were most likely intended, in

part, to provide the nation with increased latitude

to maneuver in Eurasia by forcing the United States

to divert some of its attention away from the area in

order to address risks in the Western Hemisphere

“backyard.” Yet in the process, through its dramatic

actions, Russia has done the United States a favor,

highlighting the risks to the United States stemming

from potential Russian activities in the region, and in

the process giving the United States the opportunity

to address such vulnerabilities before a global crisis in

which Russia or another U.S. geopolitical rival might

seek to exploit them.

Yet the favor that Russia has done the United

States by highlighting the potential national security

risks to the United States through such engagement is

only an opportunity if the United States responds by

taking meaningful action to address them. Doing so

will require significant resources, yet the price of not

acting is potentially far greater than the nation is in a

position to pay.

ENDNOTES

1. For a detailed account of this period, see Russell H. Bart-

ley, Imperial Russia and the Struggle for Latin American Independence,

1808-1828, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1978.

2. A. Sizonenko, “Latin America and Russia,” International

Affairs, No. 6, Vol. 50, 2004, pp. 52-60.

3. Ibid.

86

4. Nonetheless, as Latin American scholar David Mares notes,

Russia’s relationship with the region remained complicated inso-

far as many Latin American communist parties viewed Marxist

guerilla movements with suspicion, or as adventurists. Written

correspondence from David Mares, December 11, 2014.

5. Sizonenko, p. 58.

6. For a good academic discussion of Soviet support for such

movements, see Cole Blasier, The Giant’s Rival, Rev. Ed., Pitts-

burgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987.

7. Sizonenko.

8. See, for example, Eduard A. Lynch, The Cold War’s Last Bat-

tlefield: Regan, the Soviets and Central America, Albany, NY: SUNY

Press, 2011.

9. Sizonenko.

10. Yevgeniy Trifonov, “Las Dash to the Pampas,” Gazeta,

November 21, 2008, available from www.gazeta.ru.

11. Ibid.

12. Sizonenko, p. 58.

13. See, for example, Michael R. Gordon, “East-Bloc Is Said to

Cut Managua Aid,” The New York Times, October 5, 1989, available

from www.nytimes.com.

14. Vicky Pelaez, “Winds of change alter Latin America’s rela-

tionship with Russia,” The Moscow News, May 18, 2012, available

from themoscownews.com.

15. The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO

in 1999; Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined in 2004;

and Albania and Croatia joined in 2009.

16. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004.

87

17. In 1997, for example, NATO signed an agreement with

Russia agreeing not to station large numbers of troops perma-

nently in Eastern Europe. See “Russia warns NATO against mili-

tary presence in Eastern Europe,” Deutsche Welle, August 2, 2014,

available from www.dw.de.

18. See, for example, Vladimir Putin, “Annual Address to the

Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation,” Presidency of Rus-

sia, Official Website, April 25, 2005, available from archive.kremlin.

ru/eng/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_type70029type82912_87086.shtml.

19. Russian interactions with Venezuela and Cuba, for ex-

ample, arguably have been shaped by Igor Sechin, current head

of the Russian petroleum company Rosneft, and close colleague

of Vladimir Putin. See “The Tango is Fashionable Once Again,”

Vedomosti, April 16, 2010.

20. Such benefits ranged from the donation of Russian buses

to Russian interest in helping Nicaragua build a transcontinen-

tal canal. See “Russia Set to Donate 250 Buses to Nicaragua,” Ria

Novosti, August 18, 2010, available from en.ria.ru. See also “Russia, Nicaragua Sign Deals after Presidents’ Meeting,” Ria Novosti,

December 18, 2008, available from en.ria.ru.

21. In advance of the deployment, however, Russia an-

nounced that the Tu-160s were not carrying nuclear weapons,

neutralizing the concerns of Latin American countries such as

Mexico and Brazil regarding the “nuclearization” of the region,

while still symbolically demonstrating to the United States that it

could introduce such forces into the region if it wished to do so.

See “Russia Maintains that Tu-160 Bombers Do Not Carry Nu-

clear Weapons,” El Universal, September 11, 2008, available from

www.eluniversal.com.

22. “Dmitry Medvedev Took Part in a Meeting of the Leaders

of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America,” Presidency of

Russia, Official Website, November 27, 2008, available from eng.

news.kremlin.ru.

23. While in Fortaleza, Brazil, for the summit, Russian Presi-

dent Putin was able to share the final game of the World Cup

with his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff. See “From Brazil

88

to Russia: Symbolic Hand-Over at the Maracana,” Fédération In-

ternationale de Football Association (FIFA), Official Website, July

13, 2014, available from www.fifa.com.

24. “BRICS Summit 2015 to be held in Russia,” Business Stan-

dard, July 16, 2014, available from wap.business-standard.com.

25. “Russia Ready to Collaborate with All Latin American

Countries—Putin,” Voice of Russia, July 11, 2014, available from

sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia.

26. Vladimir Putin, “Interview to Prensa Latina and ITAR-

TASS,” RU Facts, July 11, 2014, available from ru-facts.com.

27. Estimate of total arms imports by Latin America derived

from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

figures, adjusting for inflation.

28. “Russia Seeks New Arms Deals on Growing Latin

American Market,” Ria Novosti, May 18, 2013, available from

www.ria.ru.

29. “Venezuela Contracts Worth USD 11 Billion to Russia,”

Jane’s Defence Weekly, May 15, 2013.

30. “Russian Helicopters Outlines Latin American Plans,”

Jane’s Defence Weekly, March 31, 2014.

31. As the weapon systems of a country come from a great-

er number of foreign countries, it becomes more difficult and

costly to repair, train on, and maintain spare parts for all of the

different systems.

32. “Venezuela Contracts Worth USD 11 Billion to Russia.”

33. In general, the Chinese arms were cheaper than compa-

rable Russian equipment. Moreover, China had a greater capacity

to finance large arms purchases than did Russia, a factor which

became increasingly important in Venezuela as the deepening

financial crisis in that country undercut the ability of its govern-

ment to pay up-front for arms.

89

34. Stephen Blank, “Moscow Rediscovers the South American

Arms Market,” Eurasia Daily Monitor, Vol. 8, Issue 89, May 9, 2011,

available from www.jamestown.org.

35. “India, Russia Plans Pact for New BrahMos Missile Ver-

sion,” The Times of India, August 1, 2014, available from timesof india.indiatimes.com.

36. “Russian Tu-160 Strategic Bombers Land in Venezuela,”

Ria Novosti, October 29, 2008, available from en.ria.ru.

37. “US to Keep a Close Watch on Russian-Venezuelan Naval

Exercise,” El Universal, November 24, 2008, available from www.

eluniversal.com.

38. “Rusia reabrirá su centro de inteligencia electrónica

en Cuba” (“Russia Re-Opens Its Electronic Intelligence Cen-

ter in Cuba”), Infodefensa, July 18, 2014, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

39. Rosa Tania Valdés, “Russian Spy Ship Makes Surprise

Visit to Havana,” Reuters, February 27, 2014, available from

www.reuters.com.

40. “Russia to Open Police Anti-Drug Training Centre in Ni-

caragua,” Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, March 25, 2013, https://janes.

ihs.com.

41. “Russian Warships to Arrive in Cuba on Official Visit,”

Ria Novosti, August 3, 2013, available from en.ria.ru/.

42. Kristina Wong, “Putin’s Quiet Latin America Play,”

The Hill, March 21, 2014, available from thehill.com/policy/

defense/201305-putins-quiet-play-for-latin-america.

43. Direction of Trade Statistics, Washington, DC: Interna-

tional Monetary Fund, 2014.

44. Compiled from the Ibid.; and Yearbook, Direction of Trade

Statistics, Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2007.

45. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

90

46. Based on the China-Latin America Finance Database, as

presented by Amos Irwin and Kevin Gallagher, “Chinese Finance

to Latin America Tops $100 Billion since 2005,” InterAmerican

Dialogue, April 2, 2014, available from thedialogue.org.

47. Matthew Bell, “Russia Set to Issue $4BN Defense Loan to

Venezuela,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, October 19, 2011.

48. See John J. Metzler, “Putin’s Latin American Charm Of-

fensive,” Korea Times, July 31, 2014, available from www.koreatimes.co.kr.

49. “Russian Businesses Keen on Boosting Presence in Latin

America,” Interfax, August 24, 2011.

50. Sizonenko.

51. “Moscow Forges Relationships with Compatriots in Lat-

in America,” The Voice of Russia, June 12, 2010, available from

voiceofrussia.com.

52. Blasier, p. 3.

53. Ibid., p. 195.

54. “India, Russia Plans Pact for New BrahMos Missile

Version.”

55. “India to Export BrahMos Missile to Latin America,”

Chennai, India: Indo-South American Chamber of Commerce,

August 18, 2014, available from www.indosouthamericanchamber.

com/india-export-brahmos-missile-latin-america/.

56. This equipment included Chinese VN-18 amphibious as-

sault vehicles, VN-16 light tanks, and VN-1 armored amphibious

vehicles. See “Exclusiva: El Nuevo Vehículo Anfibio VN-18 Para

La Infantería de Marina Venezolana” (“Exclusive: The New VN-

18 Amphibious Vehicle for the Venezuelan Marines”), FAV Club,

July 18, 2014, available from www.fav.club.com. It also included

SR-5 multiple rocket launch vehicles and SM-4 self-propelled

mortars, and continued with Venezuela’s 2014 order of L-15

supersonic fighters from Hongdu Aviation, among others. See

91

“Venezuela; FAV Orders L-15 Jet Trainer from China,” Defence

Market Intelligence, April 15, 2014, available from dmilt.com.

57. Fernando Krakowiak, “El interés ruso por el sector ener-

gético” (“Russia’s Interest in the Energy Sector”), Página 12, July

14, 2014. available from www.pagina12.com.ar.

58. “Relación Bilateral” (“Bilateral Relations”), Mexico City,

Mexico: Ministry of Foreign Relations Official Website, available

from embamex.sre.gob.mx/rusia/index.php/es/relacion-bilateral, ac-

cessed on December 1, 2014.

59. “Infantería de Marina. La élite de las Fuerzas Armadas

Mexicanas” (“Naval Infantry: The Elite of the Mexican Armed

Forces”), Defensa, available from www.defensa.com, accessed No-

vember 3, 2014.

60. “México envía a Rusia sus helicópteros Mi-17 y Mi-8 para

someterlos a modernización” (“Mexico to Send its Mi-17 and Mi-8

Helicopters to Russia to be Modernized”), Defensa, July 15, 2014,

available from www.defensa.com.

61. Ibid.

62. “U.S. Okays Russia’s Intention to Help Mexico Fight

Drug Criminality,” Ria Novosti, February 18, 2010, available from

en.rian.ru.

63. Direction of Trade Statistics, June 2014.

64. UN COMTRADE database for 2013, available from com-

trade.un.org/data, accessed November 12, 2014.

65. “Lukoil Makes Move on Mexico Oil,” Petro Global News,

February 12, 2014, available from petroglobalnews.com.

66. Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe (Eco-

nomic System for Latin America and the Caribbean), “Recent

developments in Economic Relations between the Russian Fed-

eration and Latin America and the Caribbean: Institutional and

Cooperation Mechanisms for Strengthening Relations,” Caracas,

Venezuela, August 2011.

92

67. Marvin Astrada and Félix Martín, Russia and Latin Amer-

ica: From Nation-State to Society of States, New York: Palgrave

Pivot, 2013.

68. Ibid.

69. Anna Protsenko, “Cada vez hay más turistas rusos en

México” (“There Are More and More Russian Tourists in Mex-

ico”), Russia Beyond the Headlines, April 3, 2012, available from

es.rbth.com.

70. Eyder Peralta, “In Retaliation, Russia Bans Some Food Im-

ports from U.S., Europe,” National Public Radio, August 7, 2014,

available from www.npr.org.

71. “Mexico’s Exporters Interested in Russian Market—Am-

bassador,” TASS, August 13, 2014, available from en.itar-tass.com.

72. Anonymous interview with former senior Mexican

official, October 2014.

73. Mark Falcoff, “Cuba: First Among Equals,” Dennis L.

Bark, ed., The Red Orchestra, Vol. 1, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institu-

tion Press, pp. 78-79.

74. “Navío Ruso llega a Nicaragua” (“Russian Ship Arrives in

Nicaragua”), El Nuevo Diario, December 11, 2008, available from

www.elnuevodiario.com.ni.

75. “General Gerasimov Opens Nicaraguan Munitions Dis-

posal Plant,” Voice of Russia, April 22, 2013, available from voiceo-

frussia.com.

76. “Russia-Nicaragua: Multifaceted Cooperation,” The Voice

of Russia, April 22, 2013, available from voiceofrussia.com.

77. “Rusia y Nicaragua desmantelan red de narcotraficantes

en Centroamérica” (“Russia and Nicaragua Dismantle Narcotraf-

ficking Network in Central America”), Ria Novosti, March 11,

2013, available from sp.ria.ru.

93

78. “Dos buques de la marina de guerra de Rusia llegan a Ni-

caragua” (“Two Russian Navy Warships Arrive in Nicaragua”),

La Prensa, September 12, 2013, available from www.laprensa.com.ni.

79. “Nicaragua, Russia Sign Memorandum of International

Security Cooperation,” TASS, October 31, 2013, available from

en.itar-tass.com.

80. “Russia and Nicaragua Sign Cooperation Memorandum,”

Interfax, October 31, 2013, available from www.interfax.com.

81. “SCRF Secretary Patrushev Leads Delegation to Nica-

ragua,” The Voice of Russia, November 11, 2013, available from

voiceofrussia.com.

82. Caitlin Lee, “Colombia Rebukes Russia for Airspace In-

cursion,” IHS Jane’s 360, November 5, 2013, available from www.

janes.com.

83. Observers in Colombia noted that Russia could be further

called upon to play a role in patrolling the waters off of the Carib-

bean coast of Nicaragua in the future, if the trans-Nicaragua canal

currently in process is successfully completed. The logical route

between the Caribbean entrance of such a canal and destinations

in Europe would pass in close proximity to the Colombian is-

land of San Andres and the surrounding cays, with an associated

need to protect the new shipping lanes and conduct counterpi-

racy, counternarcotics, and search and rescue operations in the

zone. Each are areas in which Nicaragua could call upon Russia

for assistance. Based on subject matter expert interviews, Bogota,

Colombia, October 2014.

84. “Nicaragua’s Parliament Votes for Russian Military Pres-

ence,” The Voice of Russia, November 27, 2013, available from

voiceofrussia.com.

85. “Russia with Plans for Military Bases in Nicaragua, Cuba,

and Venezuela,” Mercopress. February 27, 2014, available from

www.mercopress.com. See also “Rusia negocia la apertura de bases

militares en el Caribe” (“Russia Negotiates the Opening of Mili-

tary Bases in the Caribbean”), Infodefensa, March 1, 2014, available

from www.infodefensa.com.

94

86. “Nicaragua Modernizes Military Fleet with Russia’s

Help,” Xinhua, June 13, 2014, available from news.xinhuanet.com.

87. “Russia and Nicaragua Sign Cooperation Memorandum.”

88. “Rusia confirma el suministro a Nicaragua de dos he-

licópteros civiles Mi-17” (“Russia Confirms Supplying Civilian

Variant of Two Mi-17 Helicopters to Nicaragua”), Infodefensa.

July 29, 2009, available from www.infodefensa.com.

89. “Nicaragua recibe asistencia Rusia” (“Nicaragua Receives

Russian Assistance”), Defensa, September 2, 2014, available from

www.defensa.com.

90. “Rusia dona al Ejército de Nicaragua equipos de socorro

y alerta para desastres” (“Russia Donates Rescue and Warning

Equipment to Nicaragua for Natural Disasters”), Infodefensa, Jan-

uary 10, 2014, available from www.infodefensa.com.

91. “Nicaragua compró vehículos militares rusos para lucha

contra el narcotráfico” (“Nicaragua Bought Russian Miitary Vehi-

cles for the Fight against Narcotrafficking”), El Nacional, October

16, 2012, available from www.el-nacional.com.

92. “Rusia presentará asistencia a Nicaragua en instrucción

de efectivos de personal militar” (“Russia Will Offer Assistance to

Nicaragua in Teaching of Military Personnel”), Infodefensa, Sep-

tember 4, 2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

93. “Russia-Nicaragua: Multifaceted Cooperation.”

94. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

95. UN COMTRADE database.

96. “Russia-Nicaragua: Multifaceted Cooperation.”

97. “Nicaragua compró vehículos militares rusos para lucha

contra el narcotráfico.”

98. The Ortega regime reportedly also requested Russian

assistance in rebuilding the Punte Huete airport (“Panchito”), a

95

Cold War era military airfield built by the Soviet Union during

the 1980s. See Wilfredo Mirando Aburto and Octavio Enriquez,

“¿Una base militar rusa?” (“A Russian Military Base?”), Confi-

dencial, February 27, 2014, available from www.confidencial.com.

ni/articulo/16319/rusia-negocia-base-militar-en-nicaragua. See also

“‘Panchito’ es un aeropuerto para Centroamérica” (“’Panchito’ Is

an Airport for Central America”), El Nuevo Diario, June 11, 2011,

available from www.elnuevodiario.com.ni.

99. Luis Galeano and Mauricio Miranda, “Aquí sería mega-

canal” (“There Will be a Mega-Canal Here”), El Nuevo Diario, De-

cember 23, 2008, available from elnuevodiario.com.ni.

100. See, for example, Rigoberto Díaz, “Russia’s Putin in

Cuba, Nicaragua to Rekindle Latin America Ties,” Tico Times, July

12, 2014, available from www.ticotimes.net.

101. “Russia to Provide Nicaragua with Equipment for Con-

struction of New Interoceanic Canal,” Ria Novosti, September 10,

2014, available from en.ria.ru.

102. See, for example, Blasier, pp. 91-92.

103. Ibid., p. 154.

104. “Colom de visita en Rusia” (“Colom on a Visit to

Russia”), Prensa Libre, March 23, 2010, available from www.

prensalibre.com.

105. Samuel Williams, “Mina Fénix de Solway producirá

25.000t/a de ferroníquel” (“Solway’s Fenix Mine Will Produce

25,000 Tons of Nickel per Year”), Business News Americas, June 2,

2014, available from www.bnamericas.com.

106. “Speech by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,”

Russian Foreign Ministry, Official Website, November 29, 2013,

available from www.mid.ru.

107. “Guatemala autoriza a empresas extranjeras a explo-

tar petróleo en el norte del país” (“Guatemala Authorizes For-

eign Companies to Explore for Petroleum in the North of the

Country”), America Economia, June 7, 2013, available from www.

americaeconomia.com.

96

108. “Venezuela se convertirá en un centro regional de in-

strucción de helicópteros rusos” (“Venezuela Will Become a Re-

gional Training Center for Russian Helicopters”), Infodefensa, Sep-

tember 13, 2011, available from www.infodefensa.com.

109. See, for example, “Russia’s Strategic Tu-160 Bombers Set

Two World Records,” Pravda, September 19, 2008, available from

english.pravda.ru.

110. “Russian Fleet Leaves Venezuelan Waters,” Jane’s Coun-

try Risk Daily Report, December 4, 2008, available from https://

janes.ihs.com.

111. “Chavez Offers Bases for Russian Long-Range Bomb-

ers,” Mercopress. March 15, 2009, available from en.mercopress.com.

See also “Report: Russia May Base Bombers in Cuba,” NBC News,

March 14, 2009, available from www.nbcnews.com.

112. “Rusia negocia la apertura de bases militares en el

Caribe.”

113. “Venezuela Contracts Worth USD 11 Billion to Russia.”

114. “Russia Seeks New Arms Deals on Growing Latin

American Market.”

115. “Venezuela se convertirá en un centro regional de

instrucción de helicópteros rusos.”

116. Ibid.

117. “Construction of Kalashnikov Factories in Venezuela

Behind Schedule,” The Moscow Times, October 23, 2013, available

from www.themoscowtimes.com.

118. Guy Anderson and Inigo Guevara, “Russia Extends Ven-

ezuela’s Defence Systems Credit Facility,” Jane’s Defence Weekly,

December 1, 2010, available from https://janes.ihs.com.

119. “Venezuela compra en Rusia 100 tanques T-72B1V

adicionales” (“Venezuela Purchases 100 More Russian T-

72B1V Tanks”), Infodefensa, June 28, 2012, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

97

120. “Venezuela es el cuarto cliente mundial de la industria

militar rusa” (“Venezuela is the Fourth Largest Client Globally

for the Russian Military Industry”), Infodefensa, December 21,

2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

121. “El Comando de Defensa Aeroespacial de Venezuela co-

mienza a recibir el sistema misilistico Buk-2ME” (“The Venezue-

lan Aerospace Defense Command Begins Receiving the Buk-2ME

Missile System”), Infodefensa, April 17, 2013, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

122. “Venezuela interesada en adquirir aviones Yak-130”

(“Venezuela Interested in Acquiring Yak-130 Aircraft”), El Uni-

versal, October 15, 2012, available from www.eluniversal.com.

123. “Chavez anuncia que Venezuela recibirá próximamente

nuevos lotes de armamento ruso” (“Chavez Announces that Ven-

ezuela Will Soon Receive New Consignments of Russian Arms”),

Infodefensa, May 24, 2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

124. “Rusia y Venezuela rubrican un acuerdo de cooperación

técnico-militar” (“Russia and Venezuela Frame a Military Techni-

cal Cooperation Agreement”), Infodefensa, May 10, 2014, available

from www.infodefensa.com.

125. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

126. UN COMTRADE database.

127. Daniel Cancel, “Venezuela, Russia Sign Joint Venture to

Develop Junin 6 Block,” Bloomberg, September 12, 2009, available

from www.bloomberg.com.

128. “Junin 6 Oilfield to Become a Russian-Venezuelan Joint

Venture,” Russia Today, February 2, 2010, available from rt.com.

129. “Rosneft pagará $1.000 millones por acceso a Bloque

Carabobo 2” (“Rosneft Will Pay $1 Billion for Access to the Cara-

bobo 2 Block”), El Universal, October 8, 2011, available from www.

eluniversal.com.

98

130. “Venezuelan Politics May Blow Cold on Russian Con-

tracts,” The Moscow News, March 6, 2013, available from themos-

cownews.com.

131. Andrés Rojas Jiménez, “Empresas rusas advierten retra-

sos en planes Petroleros” (“Russian Businesses Advise of Delays

in Oil Plans”), El Nacional, November 20, 2013, available from

www.el-nacional.com.

132. “Venezuelan Politics May Blow Cold on Russian

Contracts.”

133. “Russian Lukoil Seeks to Pull Out of Venezuelan Oil

Project,” El Universal, October 2, 2013, available from www.

eluniversal.com.

134. “Igor Sechin Took Part in Celebrations Devoted to 60th

Anniversary of President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez,” Rosneft,

Official Website, July 29, 2014, available from www.rosneft.com.

Sechin was also sent as Moscow’s emissary to Chavez’ funeral.

135. Stephen Bierman and David Wethe, “Weatherford to

Sell Russia, Venezuela Units for $500 Million,” Bloomberg, July 14,

2014, available from www.bloomberg.com.

136. Brian Ellsworth, “Chavez Increases Mining Control,” The

Vancouver Province, p. A40.

137. “Rusoro sues Venezuela at the Icsid,” El Universal, April

2, 2013, available from www.eluniversal.com.

138. Reyes Theis, “Rusia impulsara construccion de armas en

Venezuela” (“Russia Driving Building of Arms in Venezuela”), El

Universal, April 11, 2010, available from www.eluniversal.com.

139. “Venezuela acuerda con Rusia crear un banco para

PdVSA” (“Venezuela Agrees with Russia to Create a Bank

for PdVSA”), El Universal, July 29, 2009, available from www.

eluniversal.com.

140. “Fonden adquirirá acciones de banco ruso-venezolano”

(“Fonden Will Acquire Shares in the Russia-Venezuela Bank”), El

Universal, October 14, 2010, available from www.eluniversal.com.

99

141. Jose Orozco, “Venezuela Getting $4 Billion in Russian Fi-

nancing for Weapons,” Bloomberg, November 27, 2010, available

from www.bloomberg.com.

142. Bell.

143. See, for example, Blasier, pp. 103-132. See also Wolfgang

W. Berner, “The Place of Cuba in Soviet Latin American Strat-

egy,” J. Gregory Oswald and Anthony J. Strover, eds., The Soviet

Union and Latin America, 2nd Ed., London, UK: The Pall Mall Press

Limited, 1970, pp. 91-99. See also Falcoff.

144. Putin.

145. Juan O. Tamayo, “Report: Russia Will Reopen Spy Base

in Cuba,” Miami Herald, July 16, 2014, available from www.miami-

herald.com.

146. “Rusia entregó a Cuba maquinaria para fabricar muni-

ciones del Kalashnikov” (“Russia Delivers Machinery to Manu-

facture Ammunition for Kalashnikovs to Cuba”), Fuerzas Milita-

res, September 19, 2012, available from www.fuerzasmilitares.org.

147. See, for example, Kevin Sullivan, “Cuba Upset by Clo-

sure of Russian Spy Base,” The Washington Post, October 19, 2001,

p. A26. See also Mervyn Bain, “A New Era in Russia-Cuban Rela-

tions,” International Journal of Cuban Studies, Vol. 2. No. 1, Spring/

Summer 2010, pp. 39-49.

148. “Transcript of Remarks and Replies to Media Questions

by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov,” Minis-

try of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Official Website,

September 29, 2004, www.mid.ru.

149. “Recibe Canciller Cubano Felipe Perez Roque a Vicemi-

nister Ruso de Relaciones Exteriores” (“Cuban Foreign Minister

Felipe Perez Roque Hosts Russia’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Rela-

tions”), Ria Novosti, December 13, 2006, available from sp.ria.ru.

150. Rory Carroll, “Medvedev and Castro Meet to Rebuild

Russia-Cuba Relations,” The Guardian, November 28, 2008, avail-

able from www.theguardian.com.

100

151. Yuri Pushkin, “Cuban Leader Visits Russia in a First since

Cold War,” CNN, January 29, 2009, available from www.cnn.com.

152. “Chavez to Aid Abkhazia, S Ossetia Seek Recognition,”

Fox News, July 23, 2010, available from www.foxnews.com.

153. “Rusia y Venezuela fortalecen relaciones con el Caribe”

(“Russia and Venezuela Strengthen Their Relationships with the

Caribbean”), El Universal, November 7, 2008, available from www.

eluniversal.com.

154. Lucy Westcott and Bill Powell, “Why Russia and Cuba

Are Partying Like Its 1962,” Newsweek, August 22, 2014, available

from www.newsweek.com.

155. Valdés.

156. “Rusia reabrirá su centro de inteligencia electrónica en

Cuba.”

157. “Report: Russia May Base Bombers in Cuba.”

158. “Rusia negocia la apertura de bases militares en el

Caribe.”

159. “Rusia entregó a Cuba maquinaria para fabricar muni-

ciones del Kalashnikov.”

160. “Cuba Will Acquire Russian Aircraft to the Amount of

$650 Million,” Engineering Russia, February 2013, available from

engineeringrussia.wordpress.com.

161. “Russia to Cancel Cuba’s $29 Billion of Soviet Debt,”

Russia Today, December 10, 2013, available from www.rt.com.

162. “Russia Cuts Cuba’s Debt to US $3.5 Billion,” Havana

Times, July 4, 2014, available from www.havanatimes.com. Indeed,

to some degree, Mexico’s ability to balance its security relation-

ship with the United States and that with Russia argues against

those who suggest that Russian engagement with countries of the

region inherently undercuts that of the United States.

101

163. See, for example, “Rusia quiere fomentar cooperación

con Cuba en ámbito de innovaciones farmacológicas” (“Rus-

sia Wants to Strengthen Its Cooperation with Cuba in the Area

of Farmacological Innovation”), Ria Novosti, October 21, 2010,

available from sp.ria.ru.

164. “Rusia fortalecerá la cooperación con Cuba en la esfera

farmacológica” (“Russia Will Strengthen Its Cooperation with

Cuba in the Farmacological Sphere”), Russia Today, October 21,

2010, available from actualidad.rt.com.

165. Metzler.

166. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

167. Ibid.

168. UN COMTRADE database.

169. “Gazprom Takes Stake in Petronas’s Cuba Project,”

Reuters, November 6, 2010, available from www.reuters.com.

170. Putin.

171. “Russia, Cuba Sign 10 Agreements during Putin Visit,”

The Brics Post, July 12, 2014, available from www.thebricspost.com.

172. Putin.

173. Ibid.

174. “Más de 30 países interesados en invertir en Zona de

Mariel” (“More than 30 Countries Interested in Investing in the

Mariel Trade Zone”), Periodico, No. 26, November 5, 2014, available from www.periodico26.cu. See also “Empresarios Rusos Inte-

resados En Zona De Desarrollo Cubana” (“Russian Businesses

Interested in the Cuban Development Zone”), Prensa Latina,

October 26, 2013, available from news.caribseek.com.

175. Jose F. Alonso and Ralph J. Galliano, “Russian Oil-For-

Sugar Barter Deals 1989-1999,” Cuba in Transition, ASCE 1999,

pp. 335-341. See also “Russia Forgives Whopping $29 Billion of

102

Cuban Debt with Commentary,” Havana Journal, December 10,

2013, available from havanajournal.com.

176. “Cuba Focuses on Sugar Industry in New Investment

Program,” Xinhua, September 21, 2014, available from news.xin-

huanet.com.

177. Putin.

178. Blasier, pp. 46-47.

179. “Jagdeo Lands in Russia,” Kaieteur News, February 2,

2010, available from www.kaieteurnewsonline.com.

180. “Jagdeo Urges Greater Russian Presence in Carib-

bean,” Stabroek News, February 4, 2010, available from www.

stabroeknews.com.

181. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

182. UN COMTRADE database.

183. Blasier, p. 46.

184. “Bauxite Mining in Guyana,” Mbendi, available from

www.mbendi.com, accessed October 29, 2014.

185. “Russian Team Here To Do Pre-Feasibility Study for Hy-

dropower Plant,” Stabroek News, March 24, 2007, available from

www.stabroeknews.com.

186. “It is Now 17 Months since BCGI Has Refused to Engage

the BAUXITE UNION,” Stabroek News, March 19, 2011, available

from www.stabroeknews.com. See also “Bauxite Workers Protest at

Linden,” Stabroek News, December 4, 2009, available from www.

stabroeknews.com.

187. “Guyana’s $56.7M Debt to Russia Cancelled,” Stabroek

News, February 2, 2013, available from www.stabroeknews.com.

188. See Blasier, p. 47.

103

189. Anonymous interview with a senior Jamaican

economist, November 2014.

190. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

191. UN COMTRADE database.

192. “Paulwell to Outline Solutions for Bauxite Plants,” Ja-

maica Gleaner, April 16, 2013, available from jamaica-gleaner.com.

193. Patrick Foster, “ALPART Closes May 15,” Jamaica Observ-

er, March 19, 2009, available from www.jamaicaobserver.com.

194. Horace Helps, “RPT-Jamaica’s Windalco Shuts Down

Permanently—Union,” Reuters, March 31, 2010, available from

www.reuters.com.

195. Camilo Thame, “Russians Gobble Up Last Slice of Al-

part,” Jamaica Observer, September 21, 2011, available from www.

jamaicaobserver.com.

196. “Govt’s Sale of Windalco Shares Costs Country Over

US$7m—Bauxite Official,” Jamaica Observer, June 11, 2014,

available from www.jamaicaobserver.com.

197. In 2011, RusAl also expressed an interest in acquiring a

45 percent stake in Jamaica Aluminum Corporation (Jamalco). See

“Russians Take Up Last Slice of Jamaica’s Alpart,” Stabroek News,

September 21, 2011, available from www.stabroeknews.com.

198. “Gov’t Gives Six-Month Notice to UC Rusal to Resume

Mining,” Jamaica Observer, July 11, 2014, available from www.

jamaicaobserver.com.

199. Anonymous interview with senior Jamaican economist,

November 2014.

200. “Direct Flights to Jamaica from Russia Next Year,”

Jamaica Observer, November 15, 2012, available from www.

jamaicaobserver.com.

104

201. “10,000 Russian Tourists Visit Jamaica,” Jamaica Observer,

December 12, 2013, available from www.jamaicaobserver.com.

202. Anonymous interview with a senior Jamaican

economist, November 2014.

203. “Russia, Ecuador Ink Strategic Partnership Declaration,”

Ria Novosti, October 29, 2009, available from en.ria.ru.

204. “President Correa of Ecuador Arrives in Russia on Of-

ficial Visit,” Voice of Russia, August 29, 2013, available from

voiceofrussia.com.

205. “Ecuador compra dos helicópteros Mi-17 a Rusia por 22

millones de dólares y estudia adquirir siete UAVs” (“Ecuador

Purchases 2 Mi-17 Helicopters from Russia for 22 Million Dollars

and Studies Purchasing 7 UAVs”), Infodefensa, October 30, 2009,

available from www.infodefensa.com.

206. “El Ejército ecuatoriano recibe dos Mi-171 E de fabri-

cación rusa” (“The Ecuadorian Army Takes Delivery on Two Mi-

171Es of Russian Manufacture”), Infodefensa.com, January 22, 2011,

available from www.infodefensa.com.

207. “Ponce: Ecuador negocia contrato para comprar armas a

Rusia” (“Ponce: Ecuador Negotiates a Contract for the Purchase

of Arms from Russia”), La Republica. October 31, 2011, available

from www.larepublica.ec.

208. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

209. UN COMTRADE database.

210. “Russia to Invest $1.5bn in Ecuador Energy,” Russia

Today, October 30, 2013, available from rt.com.

211. Cardenillo is due to be completed in July 2016. “Building

up Ecuador,” LATAM Confidential, November 2014.

212. “Russia to Invest $1.5bn in Ecuador Energy.”

213. Astrada and Martín, pp. 94-95.

105

214. “Ecuador y Rusia firman acuerdo para uso de energía

nuclear” (“Ecuador and Russia Sign Agreement for the Use of

Nuclear Energy”), El Universo, August 20, 2009, available from

www.eluniverso.com.

215. “Vnesheconombank and Ecuador’s Central Bank Agree

to Cooperate,” Vnesheconombank, Official Website, June 7, 2012,

available from www.veb.ru.

216. “Ecuador May Export Food to Russia without EU Per-

mission—Ecuadorian President,” Ria Novosti, August 13, 2014,

available from en.ria.ru.

217. “New Colombian Leadership Wants to Build Up Rela-

tions with Russia,” ITAR-TASS, August 8, 2010, available from

en.itar-tass.com.

218. See Astrada and Martin, p. 82.

219. Samper also reportedly had a commitment from then

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov that Samper would

be invited to Russia as part of the deal. He became angry when

the Russians did not fulfill their side of the bargain.

220. Ralph Boulton, “Russia Strives to Be Tops in Guns,” The

Moscow Times, February 4, 1997, available from www.themoscow-

times.com.

221. Beyond routine maintenance, in 2004, the Colombian

government reportedly signed a contract for the repair of 9 Mi-

17Es damaged in combat operations. See “Rusos Vienen a Repa-

rar Helicópteros” (“Russians Come to Repair Helicopters”), El

Tiempo, July 10, 2004, available from www.eltiempo.com.

222. See, for example, “Colombia participará en misiones de

paz de la Unión Europea” (“Colombia to Participate in European

Union Peace Missions”), Defensa, August 8, 2014, available from

www.defensa.com.

223. “Colombia to locally produce BTR-80,” Invision Free, July

28, 2006, available from z14.invisionfree.com.

106

224. “Tal y como lo hizo Chávez, Juan Manuel Santos estará

de visita oficial en Rusia” (“Following in the Footsteps of Chavez,

Juan Manuel Santos Will Make an Official Visit to Russia”), El Es-

pectador, October 3, 2008, available from www.espectador.com.

225. Anonymous interview with Colombian security official,

Bogota, Colombia, October 2014.

226. Zachary Keck, “Russia Says It’s Building Naval Bases in

Asia, Latin America,” The Diplomat, February 28, 2014, available

from thediplomat.com.

227. Alec Luhn, “Russia to Reopen Spy Base in Cuba as Re-

lations with US Continue to Sour,” The Guardian, July 16, 2014,

available from www.theguardian.com.

228. “Rusia negocia la apertura de bases militares en el

Caribe.”

229. Anonymous interview with Colombian security expert,

Bogota, Colombia, October 2014.

230. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

231. UN COMTRADE database.

232. Sistema Económico Latinoamericano y del Caribe.

233. Anonymous interview with Colombia energy industry

expert, Bogota, Colombia, October 2014.

234. Anonymous interview with Colombian scholar, Bogota,

Colombia, October 2014.

235. “TNK-BP Interested in Hydrocarbon Tenders in Colom-

bia But Still Has Not Entered the Country—Senior VP,” Interfax,

September 27, 2012, available from www.interfax.com.

236. Anonymous interview with Colombian scholar, Bogota,

Colombia, October 2014.

107

237. “Meeting with President of Peru Ollanta Humala,” Rus-

sian Presidency, Official Website, September 8, 2012, available

from eng.kremlin.ru.

238. Elizabeth Alvarez Velásquez, “Peruvian President Fo-

cuses on Economic Ties in Visit to Russia,” Prensa Latina, Novem-

ber 6, 2014, available from www.plenglish.com.

239. Ibid.

240. Calvin Simms, “Peru’s Cut-Rate Fighter Jets Were Too

Good to Be True,” The New York Times, May 31, 1997, available

from www.nytimes.com.

241. “Peru Gets Upgraded Mi-25 Gunships to Boost Drug

Fight,” Ria Novosti, October 20, 2012, available from en.ria.ru.

242. “Fuerza Aérea Del Perú Firma Contrato Para Reparar

MIG29” (“Peruvian Air Force Signs Contract to Repair Mig-29s”),

Zona Militar, August 12, 2008, available from www.zona-militar.

com. See also “RAC MiG Upgraded MiG-29 Fighters of Peruvian

Air Forces,” Russia Aviation, August 22, 2012, available from www.

ruaviation.com.

243. Of these, eight were upgraded to the “SMP” configura-

tion under a 2012 contract, while an additional eight were to be

upgraded under a 2013 contract that had yet to be implemented

at the time of this writing. Beyond the upgrades, the Peruvian

Air Force was reportedly considering buying up to 10 Mig-35s.

See “Rusia quiere vender el Mig-35 en Perú” (“Russia Wants to

Sell the Mig-35 in Peru”), Defensa, October 3, 2014, available from

www.defensa.com.

244. “Spain Offers Eurofighters to Peru,” Free Republic,

February 4, 2013, available from www.freerepublic.com.

245. “La Fuerza Aérea del Perú recibe cuatro helicópteros de

ataque MI-25 reparados en Rusia” (“The Peruvian Air Force Takes

Delivery on Four Mi-25 Attack Helicopters Repaired in Russia”),

Infodefensa, October 23, 2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

108

246. “Ejército desmiente información publicada en medio de

comunicación local” (“Army Refutes Information Published in

Local Media”), Agencia Peruana de Noticias, June 25, 2011, avail-

able from www.andina.com.pe.

247. The first eight helicopters were to be delivered in No-

vember 2014, with the rest to be delivered in 2015. See “El minis-

tro de Defensa de Perú revisa en Moscú con su homólogo ruso los

avances del contrato para el suministro de 24 Mi-171Sh-P Hip H”

(“The Peruvian Minister of Defense, with His Russian Counter-

part, Reviews Progress in the Contract for the Supply of 24 Mi-171

Sh-P Hip H”), Defensa, September 4, 2014, available from www.

defensa.com.

248. “El Ministerio de Defensa de Perú expone los logros del

programa Offset en sus compras de equipamiento militar” (“The

Peruvian Minister of Defense Expounds on the Accomplishments

of the Offset Program in Its Purchases of Military Equipment”),

Defensa, October 2, 2014, available from www.defensa.com.

249. “El ministro de Defensa de Perú revisa en Moscú con

su homólogo ruso los avances del contrato para el suministro de

24 Mi-171Sh-P Hip H” (“The Peruvian Minister of Defense, with

His Russian Counterpart, Reviews Progress in the Contract for

the Supply of 24 Mi-171 Sh-P Hip H”). In addition, the Russians

also worked with Peru to create a secondary maintenance center

for Russian equipment in the VRAE-M region itself, managed by

Peruvians with Russian assistance.

250. “Russian Defense Minister Due in Brazil for Talks,” De-

fense News, October 15, 2013, available from www.defensenews.com.

251. “Rosoboronexport espera cerrar tras las elecciones

presidenciales de Perú, en 2016, la venta de 140 carros de com-

bate T-90S” (“Rosoboronexport Hopes to Close the Deal for 140

T-90S Armored Vehicles after the Peruvian Presidential Elec-

tions in 2016”), Defensa, September 22, 2014, available from

www.defensa.com.

252. “El ministro de Defensa de Rusia promueve en persona

ventas militares en Brasil y Perú” (“The Russian Minister of De-

fense Promotes Military Sales in Person in Brazil and Peru”), Info-

defensa, October 10, 2013, available from www.infodefensa.com.

109

253. “Defense Minister Shoigu to Push Russian Arms Sales in

Brazil, Peru,” Ria Novosti, October 9, 2013, available from en.ria.ru.

254. “Putin a Humala: “Más de 200 oficiales peruanos se for-

marán en Rusia” (“Putin to Humala: More than 200 Peruvian Of-

ficers to be Educated in Russia”), Russia Today. September 8, 2012,

available from actualidad.rt.com.

255. “Perú y Rusia Suscriben Convenio De Cooperación En

Lucha Contra Las Drogas” (“Peru and Russia Sign Cooperation

Agreement in the Fight against Drugs”), DEVIDA, Official Web-

site, June 25, 2012, available from www.devida.gob.pe. Although

Colombia is the major source of cocaine destined for Russia, im-

portant quantities are also reportedly exported from Peru, mostly

from the VRAE-M region, through the Brazilian amazon, often

via caqmpesinos (peasants) carrying the drugs in backpacks, then

through Africa, Europe, and eventually Russia.

256. “Rusia, Cabeza De La Lucha Contra Las Drogas” (“Rus-

sia, at the Head of the Fight against Drugs”), Los Tiempos, March

21, 2013, available from www.lostiempos.com.

257. UN COMTRADE database.

258. The small “Cubesat” was reportedly wholly developed

in Peru by scientists at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

(PUPC). “La PUCP lanza al espacio primeros satélites hechos

íntegramente en el Perú” (“PUCP University Launches Its First

Satellites Built Entirely in Peru”), Gestion, November 21, 2013,

available from gestion.pe. For technical specifications, see “PUCP-

Sat-1,” Instituto Radioastronomia Inras-PUCP, available from

inras.pucp.edu.pe.

259. “Russia and Peru Agree to Boost Food Imports, May

Share GLONASS,” Russia Today, November 7, 2014, available

from rt.com.

260. Lucien Chauvin, “As Russia Pivots to Asia, Some Ask

How Far East It’s Willing to Look,” The Christian Science Monitor,

May 21, 2014, available from www.csmonitor.com.

110

261. “Russia and Peru Agree to Boost Food Imports, May

Share GLONASS.”

262. Ibid.

263. “Peru’s President Humala Meets with Russian Officials

in Moscow,” Andina, November 7, 2014, available from www.

andina.com.pe.

264. “Peru, Russia Eye to Kick Off FTA Talks to Boost Trade,”

Andina, May 6, 2014, available from www.andina.com.pe.

265. Matthew Michaelides, “The New Face of Russia’s Rela-

tions with Brazil,” Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 2014,

available from www.jpolrisk.com.

266. Ibid.

267. “Putin Talks with Dilma Rousseff in Brazilian Capital,”

The Voice of Russia, July 22, 2014, available from voiceofrussia.com.

268. Michaelides.

269. Putin.

270. Michaelides.

271. “Brasil va a recibir sus últimos MI-35 en los próximos 90

días” (“Brazil Will Receive Its Last Mi-35 in the Next 90 Days”),

Defensa, September 23, 2014, available from www.defensa.com.

272. Michaelides.

273. “Russian Helicopters Outlines Latin American Plans.”

274. “Militares brasileños evalúan en Rusia el Pantsir-S1”

(“Brazilian Military Officers in Russia Evaluate the Pantsir-S1”),

Defensa, September 1, 2014, available from www.defensa.com. See

also “El contrato ruso- brasileño por los ‘Pantsir’ y la futura planta

de producción en Brasil superaría los 1.000 millones de dólares”

(“The Russia-Brazilian Contract for the ‘Pantsir’s’ and the Future

Production Plant in Brazil Will Exceed $1 Billion”), Defensa, July

22, 2014, available from www.defensa.com.

111

275. “Soldados del Ejército de Brasil reciben capacitación para

operar los misiles antiaéreos rusos Igla-S” (“Soldiers of the Brail-

ian Army Receive Training for the Operation of Russian Igla-S

Antiaircraft Missiles”), Infodefensa, May 12, 2010, available from

www.infodefensa.com.

276. “India Plans to Supply Vietnam BrahMos Missiles,” In-

dian Defence, September 14, 2014, available from indiandefence.com.

277. “Brasil y Rusia afianzan en Chile su colaboración en tec-

nología militar” (“Brazil and Russia in Chile Refine Their Collab-

oration in Military-Technical Collaboration”), Infodefensa, March

28, 2014, available from www.infodefensa.com.

278. “Rusia ofrece a Brasil aviones de caza Sukhoi Su-35”

(“Russia Offers Brazil Sukhoi Su-35 Fighters”), Infodefensa.com,

May 24, 2013, available from www.infodefensa.com.

279. “La Fuerza Aérea Brasileña estudia nuevas opciones para

disponer de aviones de transición hasta la llegada del Gripen NG”

(“The Braziian Air Force Studies New Options to Make Avail-

able Transitional Aircraft until the Gripen NG Arrives”), Defensa,

September 15, 2014, available from www.defensa.com.

280. “La policía de Río de Janeiro probará un vehículo blin-

dado ruso para luchar contra el crimen organizado” (“The Police

of Rio de Janeiro State Will Test a Russian Armored Vehicle for

the Fight against Organized Crime”), Infodefensa, May 25, 2010,

available from www.infodefensa.com.

281. John K. C. Daly, “Moscow Looses Brazil Submarine Deal

to Paris,” Eurasia Daily Monitor, 2008, pp. 5-27.

282. “Soldados del Ejército de Brasil reciben capacitación para

operar los misiles antiaéreos rusos Igla-S.”

283. Alexandra Koval, “Contemporary Perspectives and

Trends in Russian-Brazilian Relations,” Russian Analytical Digest,

February 14, 2011.

284. Michaelides.

112

285. “Putin Talks with Dilma Rousseff in Brazilian Capital.”

286. Ibid.

287. “Gazprom Eyeing Opportunities in Brazil Oil, Gas,” Re-

uters, October 9, 2009, available from www.reuters.com.

288. Michaelides.

289. “Rosatom in Brazil by 2015,” Brazil Energy, February

14, 2014.

290. Nick Cunningham, “In Latin America, Putin Wheels,

Deals on Energy,” The Christian Science Monitor, July 16, 2014,

available from www.csmonitor.com.

291. Guy Anderson, “Russia Targets Brazilian Market as Part

of Global Expansion Strategy,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, May 17,

2010, available from https://janes.ihs.com.

292. See, for example, Aleksey Ekimovsky, “Brazil’s Embraer

to Rival the Superjet,” Russia Beyond the Headlines, December 27,

2012, available from in.rbth.com.

293. “Putin Talks with Dilma Rousseff in Brazilian Capital.”

294. Elliot Wilson, “Russia: Hand in Hand,” LatinFinance,

May 1, 2013, available from www.latinfinance.com.

295. “Putin Talks with Dilma Rousseff in Brazilian Capital.”

296. “Bolivia Says Morales’ Plane Diverted, Apparently over

Snowden,” Reuters, July 2, 2013, available from www.reuters.com.

297. “Presidentes Evo Morales y Vladimir Putin se reunirán

en Brasil” (“Evo Morales and Vladimir Putin Will Meet in

Brazil”), Cambio, July 11, 2014, available from www.cambio.bo.

298. “Bolivia pide a Rusia créditos a largo plazo y bajo in-

terés” (“Bolivia Asks Russia for Long Term Credit at Low Interest

Rates”), Infodefensa, January 10, 2011, available from www.infode-

fensa.com.

113

299. “Russian Helicopters Outlines Latin American Plans.”

300. “Morales confirma compra de avión presidencial a Ru-

sia” (“Morales Confirms the Purchase of a Presidential Aircraft

from Russia”), La Patria, September 13, 2009, available from www.

lapatriaenlinea.com.

301. “Bolivia pide a Rusia créditos a largo plazo y bajo

interés.”

302. “Rusia establecerá un centro de mantenimiento de avi-

ones en Bolivia” (“Russia to Establish an Aviation Maintenance

Center in Bolivia”), Infodefensa, September 16, 2009, available from

www.infodefensa.com.

303. “Bolivia ha decidido adquirir un Dassault Falcon 900EX

como avión presidencial” (“Bolivia Has Decided to Acquire a

Dassault Falcon 900EX as its Presidential Aircraft”), Aviacion

Argentina, April 12, 2010, available from www.aviacionargentina.

net.

304. “Bolivia evalúa la compra de dos helicópteros rusos

Mi-17” (“Bolivia Evaluates the Purchase of Two Russian Mi-17

Helicopters”), Infodefensa, March 21, 2014, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

305. “Bolivia negocia con Rusia compras de helicópteros y ar-

mamento” (“Bolivia Negotiates with Russia for the Purchase of

Helicopters and Arms”), Infodefensa, August 28, 2013, available

from www.infodefensa.com.

306. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

307. UN COMTRADE database.

308. “Rusia destaca que en Bolivia puede construirse una es-

tación para lanzar satélites” (“Russia Emphasizes that in Bolivia,

It Could Construct a Facility for Launching Satellites”), Infodefen-

sa, April 29, 2010, available from www.infodefensa.com.

309. Astrada and Martin, p. 90.

114

310. “Bolivia proyecta comprar armammento ruso por varios

millions de dólares” (“Bolivia Anticipates Purchasing Millions of

Dollars of Russian Arms”), El Pais, May 22, 2009, available from

www.elpais.com.

311. “Russian Oil Giant Rosneft Inks Bolivia Energy Deal,”

AFP, November 9, 2013, available from https://uk.news.yahoo.com.

312. “Bolivia’s Morales to Anticipate Rosneft Investment

Despite Sanctions,” Reuters, July 16, 2014, available from www.

reuters.com.

313. “Rusia interesada en litio boliviano” (“Russia Interested

in Bolivian Lithium”), Vanguardia, June 22, 2009, available from

www.vanguardia.com.mx.

314. See, for example, Blasier, p. 159.

315. Ibid., p. 163.

316. Ibid., p. 163.

317. “Moscow Forges Relationships with Compatriots in Lat-

in America.”

318. While it was the only other country that Medvedev vis-

ited on that trip beside Brazil, it is of note that he did not make

a stop in Argentina during his four-nation visit to the region

in 2008.

319. Putin was received warmly by Argentine president Cris-

tina Fernandez de Kirchner when the two leaders signed an agree-

ment for cooperation in a broad array of sectors, from energy to

telecommunications.

320. Alexei Anishchuk and Richard Lough, “Putin Signs

Nuclear Energy Deal with Argentina,” Reuters, July 12, 2014,

available from www.reuters.com.

321. Anna Smolchenko, “Russia, Argentina in Talks on Arms

Deal,” The Moscow Times, August 10, 2006, available from www.

themoscowtimes.com.

115

322. “Arriban a Buenos Aires los dos primeros helicópteros

MI-171E adquiridos a Rusia” (“The First Mi-171E Helicopters

Purchased from Russia Touch Down in Buenos Aires”), Infode-

fensa, November 29, 2011, available from www.infodefensa.com.

323. “Argentina adquirirá nueva partida de helicópteros Mi-

171E de fabricación rusa” (“Argentina Will Acquire a New Squad-

ron of Mi-171E Helicopters of Russian Manufacture”), Infodefensa,

April 16, 2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

324. “Argentina construirá un nuevo buque polar en cooper-

ación con Rusia” (“Argentina Will Build a New Polar Ship in Co-

operation with Russia”), Infodefensa, February 16, 2012, available

from www.infodefensa.com.

325. “Compran barcos a Rusia para patrullaje” (“Russian

Boats Purchased for Patrolling”), Nacion, December 5, 2014,

available from www.lanacion.com.ar.

326. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

327. UN COMTRADE database.

328. “Argentina compra a Rusia helicópteros Mi-17 y firman

acuerdos en energía nuclear y tecnología de satélites” (“Argen-

tina Purchases Mi-17 Helicopters from Russia and Signs Agree-

ments for Nuclear Energy and Satellite Technology”), Infodefensa,

April 15, 2010, available from www.infodefensa.com.

329. Argentina is one of the few countries in the region to

have an installed nuclear capability (the others being Mexico

and Brazil).

330. Anishchuk and Lough.

331. “Argentina and China Sign Nuclear Cooperation Deal

for Atucha III,” Buenos Aires Herald, September 3, 2014, available

from buenosairesherald.com.

332. “Russian Companies Display Interest in Making

Agreements with Argentina,” Telam, September 19, 2014.

116

333. “Nationalized YPF Draws Russian Investor,” UPI,

September 7, 2012, available from www.upi.com.

334. Pablo Gonzalez and Camila Russo, “Chevron $1.24 Bil-

lion Deal Leads YPF Post-Repsol Shale Hunt,” Bloomberg, July 17,

2013, available from www.bloomberg.com.

335. “Russian Companies Invited to Develop World’s Sec-

ond Largest Shale Field in Argentina,” TASS, September 22, 2014,

available from en.itar-tass.com.

336. Jonathan Gilbert, “Russia Signs Nuclear Deal in

Argentina,” The New York Times, July 14, 2014, p. 8.

337. “Russian Companies Display Interest in Making

Agreements with Argentina.”

338. “Argentina and Russia Agree to Strategic Association,”

Jane’s Country Risk Daily Report, December 11, 2008, available from

https://janes.ihs.com.

339. “Russian Companies Invited to Develop World’s Second

Largest Shale Field in Argentina.”

340. “Inter Rao Plans to Help Hydropower Plants Construc-

tion in Argentina,” Energy Business Review, July 14, 2014, available

from hydro.energy-business-review.com.

341. Krakowiak.

342. Ibid.

343. “Argentina to Discuss Increasing Exports to Rus-

sia,” The Moscow Times, August 17, 2014, available from www.

themoscowtimes.com.

344. “Russian Companies Display Interest in Making

Agreements with Argentina.”

345. See, for example, “Inter RAO Could Help Build Turnkey

Hydropower Plants in Argentina,” Russia Beyond the Headlines,

Interfax, July 10, 2014, available from m.rbth.com.

117

346. “RusHydro Signs Memorandum of Understanding with

ENERGIA ARGENTINA S.A.,” RusHydro, Official Website, May

27, 2011, available from www.eng.RusHydro.ru.

347. Krakowiak.

348. “Russian, Argentinian Presidents Launch Broadcasting

of RT in Argentina,” Ria Novosti, October 10, 2014, available from

en.ria.ru.

349. “Paraguay confirma que Rusia le ofreció seis aviones de

combate” (“Paraguay Confirms that Russia Offered It Six Combat

Aircraft”), InfoDefensa, January 2, 2011, available from www.info-

defensa.com.

350. “Paraguay quiere comprar de Rusia aeronaves y no

armas, dice Filizzola” (“Paraguay Wants to Buy Russian Air-

craft, and Not Arms, Filizzola Says”), ABC Color, June 14, 2010,

available from www.abc.com.py.

351. UN COMTRADE database.

352. “Russia and Brazil Main Buyers of Paraguayan Beef

in Spite of FMD,” Mercopress, April 26, 2012, available from

en.mercopress.com.

353. “Rusia rehabilita dos frigoríficos para exportar carne

paraguaya” (“Russia Refurbishes Two Meat-Processing Facilities

for Exporting Paraguayan Meat”), AmericaEconomia, January 27,

2012, available from www.americaeconomia.com.

354. “Surge oportunidad para enviar más carne a Rusia”

(“The Opportunity to Send More Meat to Russia Arises”), ABC

Color, May 1, 2014, available from www.abc.com.py.

355. UN COMTRADE database.

356. Anonymous interview with Paraguayan scholar,

October 2014.

357. “Crecieron las exportaciones de carne a Rusia” (“Meat

Exports to Russia Grow”), El Observador, April 12, 2013, available

from www.elobservador.com.uy.

118

358. “Morales, Fernández, Mujica, Putin y Maduro se reunirán

en Argentina” (“Morales, Fernandez, Mujica, Putin, and Maduro

Meet in Argentina”), Cambio, July 11, 2014, available from www.

cambio.bo.

359. “La Policía Nacional de Uruguay recibe el viernes los

blindados Tigr adquiridos a Rusia” (“The Uruguayan National

Police Friday Will Take Delivery on the Tigr Armored Vehicles

Acquired from Russia”), Infodefensa, October 14, 2011, available

from www.infodefensa.com.

360. “El Ministerio de Defensa del Uruguay adquiere camio-

nes tácticos rusos Ural” (“The Uruguayan Ministry of Defense

Acquires Ural Russian Tactical Trucks”), Infodefensa, August 21,

2012, available from www.infodefensa.com.

361. “El pedido de armamento de la Policía de Uruguay a Ru-

sia ascendió a más de 1,2 millones de dólares” (“The Order by the

Uruguayan Police to Russia for Arms Rises to More than $1.2 Mil-

lion Dollars”), InfoDefensa, February 3, 2012, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

362. “La FAU no participa en la ronda negociatoria por el Yak

130. Los problemas de pagar a Rusia armamento con carne” (“The

Uruguayan Air Force Will Not Participate in the Round of Nego-

tiations for the Yak-130. The Problems of Paying for Arms with

Meat”), Defensa, July 16, 2014, available from www.defensa.com.

363. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

364. UN COMTRADE database.

365. “Russia Looks to Nuclear Cooperation with Uruguay,”

Mercopress, January 2, 2008, available from en.mercopress.com.

366. “Gazprom International Talks in Uruguay,” Gazprom,

Official Website, September 16, 2014, available from gazprom-in-

ternational.com.

367. “Uruguay Says Gazprom, LUKOIL Eye Its Energy Sec-

tor,” Reuters, April 14, 2011, available from www.reuters.com.

119

368. “Uruguay aumentará sus exportaciones agrícolas a Ru-

sia” (“Uruguay Will Increase Its Agricultural Exports to Russia”),

Ria Novosti, October 6, 2014, available from sp.ria.ru.

369. For Russia, the perceived closeness of Chile to the United

States implies that Russian courtship of the country would be a

“waste of time.” See Chauvin.

370. Blasier, p. 161.

371. “Lavrov Hopes Chile Officials Will Attend St. Peters-

burg International Economic Forum,” Voice of Russia, May 1, 2014,

available from voiceofrussia.com.

372. “Putin constata un ‘diálogo intense político’ entre Rusia

y Chile en material económica” (“Putin Verifies That There Is an

‘Intense Political Dialogue’ between Russia and Chile on Econom-

ic Matters”), El Mercurio, November 9, 2014, available from www.

emol.com.

373. “Canciller Muñoz visitará Moscú para concretar acu-

erdos entre Chile y Rusia” (“Foreign Minister Muñoz Will Visit

Moscow to Cement Agreements between Chile and Russia”), El

Mercurio, November 10, 2014, available from www.emol.com.

374. “Bachelet Invites Putin to Visit Chile,” Fox News, April

30, 2014, available from www.foxnews.com.

375. Trifonov.

376. “EEUU muestra su malestar por la intención de Chile de

adquirir helicópteros militares rusos” (“The U.S. Demonstrates

Its Displeasure over Chile’s Intention to Acquire Russian Mili-

tary Helicopters”), Infodefensa, July 8, 2009, available from www.

infodefensa.com.

377. Anonymous interview with Chilean security expert,

November 2014.

378. Guy Anderson, “Russia and Chile Explore Military Co-

operation Again,” IHS Janes 360, May 1, 2014, available from www.

janes.com.

120

379. Direction of Trade Statistics, 2014.

380. UN COMTRADE database.

381. “Observatorio astronómico ruso “abre los ojos” en Chile

tras 41 años” (“The Russian Astronomical Observatory ‘Opens Its

Eyes’ in Chile after 41 Years”), Efektonoticias, May 8, 2014, avail-

able from efektonoticias.com.

382. “Firma rusa desarrolla proyecto piloto undimotriz en la

VI Región” (“Russian Firm Develops an Automotive Pilot Project

in the 6th Region”), Business News Americas. June 1, 2011, available

from www.bnamericas.com.

383. Chauvin.

384. Still, Russia’s commercial ventures with countries such

as Mexico and Peru also illustrate that challenging the United

States is not the sole reason for its activities in the region.

385. Indeed, one indication of just how grave the Russian fi-

nancial situation is becoming is recent Russian indications that it

may need to reduce the budget for a number of projects contem-

plated for the 2018 World Cup. See “Russia’s World Cup Budget

Feeling Squeeze,” Yahoo News, October 15, 2014, available from

news.yahoo.com.

386. See, for example, Laurence Norman, “EU Projects Impact

of Sanctions on Russian Economy,” The Wall Street Journal, Oc-

tober 29, 2014, available from online.wsj.com. See also Anna An-

drianova, “Russian GDP Growth Slows Less Than Forecast on

Harvest,” Bloomberg, November 13, 2014, available from www.

bloomberg.com.

387. See, for example, R. Evan Ellis, China on the Ground in

Latin America, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014.

388. R. Evan Ellis, “Chinese Soft Power in Latin Amer-

ica: A Case Study,” Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 60, 1st Quarter

2011, pp. 85-91.

121

389. Written correspondence from David Mares, December

11, 2014.

390. “Russian Food Embargo Smells Like Opportunity for

LatAm,” The Global Post, August 17, 2014, available from www.

globalpost.com.

391. Even beyond purely military actions, Russia’s commer-

cial presence in Latin America in sectors such as gas and oil and

construction creates opportunities for Russia to introduce forces

into the region in time of conflict.

122

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

Major General William E. Rapp

Commandant

*****

STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE

and

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE PRESS

Director

Professor Douglas C. Lovelace, Jr.

Director of Research

Dr. Steven K. Metz

Author

Dr. R. Evan Ellis

Editor for Production

Dr. James G. Pierce

Publications Assistant

Ms. Rita A. Rummel

*****

Composition

Mrs. Jennifer E. Nevil

FOR THIS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS, VISIT US AT

UNITED STATES

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/

ARMY WAR COLLEGE

PRESS

Carlisle Barracks, PA

and

THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT

WITH LATIN AMERICA:

STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE,

AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

R. Evan Ellis

U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE

This Publication

SSI Website

USAWC Website

Document Outline

- THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN AMERICA: STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE, AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

- FOREWORD

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR

- SUMMARY

- THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN AMERICA: STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE, AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

- OVERVIEW

- Background.

- Motivations.

- Country Focus of Re-Engagement.

- Russian Engagement through Multilateral Forums.

- Military Interactions.

- Commercial Focus of Re-Engagement.

- Ethnic Russians in Latin America.

- Intellectual Infrastructure.

- Interactions with Other Extra-regional Actors.

- RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN AMERICA COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY

- Mexico.

- Nicaragua.

- Guatemala.

- Venezuela.

- Cuba.

- Guyana.

- Jamaica.

- Ecuador.

- Colombia.

- Peru.

- Brazil.

- Bolivia.

- Argentina.

- Paraguay.

- Uruguay.

- Chile.

- IMPACTS ON THE REGION AND ON THE UNITED STATES

- Economic Impacts.

- Strategic Impacts.

- RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. LEADERSHIP

- ENDNOTES

Table of Contents

THE NEW RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN AMERICA: STRATEGIC POSITION, COMMERCE, AND DREAMS OF THE PAST

FOREWORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SUMMARY

OVERVIEW

Background.

Motivations.

Country Focus of Re-Engagement.

Russian Engagement through Multilateral Forums.

Military Interactions.

Commercial Focus of Re-Engagement.

Ethnic Russians in Latin America.

Intellectual Infrastructure.

Interactions with Other Extra-regional Actors.

RUSSIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH LATIN AMERICA COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY

Mexico.

Nicaragua.

Guatemala.

Venezuela.

Cuba.

Guyana.

Jamaica.

Ecuador.

Colombia.

Peru.

Brazil.

Bolivia.

Argentina.

Paraguay.

Uruguay.

Chile.

IMPACTS ON THE REGION AND ON THE UNITED STATES

Economic Impacts.

Strategic Impacts.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR U.S. LEADERSHIP

ENDNOTES