Russia is expanding her military footprint, from Vietnam to Latin America, and it's bringing back up buried Cold War tensions.

Russian use of an airfield in Cam Ranh Bay, a U.S. base during the Vietnam War, and a Soviet navy base until 2002, is drawing concern from the Obama administration.  State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed that the U.S. is pushing Vietnam to ban Russian military aircraft from refueling there.

Marine Corps General John Kelly, head of U.S. Southern Command, said that Russia is courting Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua "to gain access to air bases and ports for resupply of Russian naval assets and strategic bombers operating in the Western Hemisphere."

Beginning last year a Russian intelligence ship docked in Havana, Cuba "multiple times conducting operations in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast of the United States," he said.

Russia has moved combat aircraft into the illegally annexed Crimea, and has increased the number of long-range missions by jets.  According to NATO, Russian military aircraft have probed and sometimes violated the airspace of other European nations more than 100 times in the last year.  Just this month Russian jets used NATO ships in the Black Sea to make practice bombing runs.  Putin is flexing Russian muscle in the hopes of building another empire.

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http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/03/13/3686670/putins-military-moves-draw-us.html 

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