Is Russia about to reopen its Cuba military base to stick two fingers up to Donald Trump and the US?
Soviet-era spy base outside Havana was built in 1962 - the year of the Cuban missile crisis - but closed in 2002
RUSSIA should reopen its military base in Cuba, in the backyard of the United States, two key supporters of Vladimir Putin have demanded.
Such a move would massively ramp up tensions between Washington and Moscow at a time when relations are already at their worst since the Cold War.
Many will see the coordinated call by two key parliamentary allies of President Putin as a sign that a new ultra-modern Cuban presence is intended by the Kremlin.
"Our base on Cuba, naval and aviation, should exist. It's a key issue," demanded Frants Klintsevich, deputy head of the Russian senate's defence and security committee, according to Interfax news agency.
Russia should decisively react to the placing of US missile defence systems around its borders, he claimed.
Hours later the committee's chairman Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev - until last month commander of Russian aerospace forces - echoed the call while also demanding a reopening of the former Russian military base in Vietnam.
"I believe under the condition of increased tension in the world and frank intervention in the internal affairs of other countries - Russia's historical partners - our return to Latin America is not ruled out," he said.
";Of course, this should be coordinated with the Cubans."
The Russian base in the Caribbean named the Lourdes SIGINT Station was installed near Havana in 1962 - the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis - and was Moscow's largest foreign facility of its kind.
The Cuban missile crisis saw the world stand on the brink of nuclear catastrophe when US President John F Kennedy fronted up to Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
The USSR, seeking to make the most of its new Communist allies in Cuba, sent rockets to be placed on the island.
There was alarm in Washington as these nuclear rocket sites, placed well within reach of the US mainland, would be capable of launching a deadly strike on nearly any major American city.
Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba to deter the Russians from reaching the island with their deadly arsenal.
After tense negotiations, the crisis was averted when Khrushchev agreed to dismantle his weapons in Cuba in return for a commitment for the US to stay away from the island's regime.
But the massive spy base remained in use until 2002, 11 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
At the time, Putin said it was too costly with Russian switching resources into spy satellites.
Bondarev called for the reasserting of Kremlin power in Asia, too.
"We should also think about our Navy's return to Vietnam with the permission of the government," he said.
The Cold War base in Vietnam was also axed in 2002.
Last year the Russian defence ministry indicated a return of the military bases in Cuba and Vietnam was being considered.
Hawkish Klintsevich insisted: "Our presence on Cuba is extremely desirable.
"It should definitely be done and it should be intensified today....
"Our presence should be everywhere.
"I want much more efforts to be made in this regard than is being made now, and I will even insist on that."
In April, a former paratrooper who served for Soviet forces in Afghanistan, blasted former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon as he said Britain would be wiped off the face of the earth if it deployed a first strike nuclear attack against Russia.
The former paratrooper who served for Soviet forces in Afghanistan took exception to Sir Michael's comment that "in the most extreme circumstances, we have made it very clear that you can't rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike".
He insisted that were Britain to launch a preemptive attack on a hostile nuclear foe then "not having the biggest territory, it is likely to be literally wiped out by the counter strike".
It would be "razed to the ground", he said.
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