Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1107757
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 APRIL 2019 NEWS TWO military planes carrying about 100 Russian personnel arrived in Caracas to- wards the end of March, an influx which United States officials said was unusu- al for its size. An unnamed Venezuelan offi- cial told The Associated Press that the Russian military officials arrived in Caracas to discuss strategy, equipment maintenance and training. The Chief of Staff of Russia's Ground Forces Vasily Tonkoshkurov, nearly 100 troops and 35 metric tons of equipment were on board the planes, media reports said. The flights also carried officials who arrived to "exchange consultations", the state-funded Sputnik news agency re- ported. "Russia has various contracts that are in the process of being fulfilled, con- tracts of a technical military character," Sputnik said. The An-124, along with a Russian Air Force Il-62M passenger transport, ar- rived at Simón Bolívar International Air- port in Venezuela's capital Caracas on 23 March. Both flights originated in Russia, but the Il-62M stopped in the Syrian capital Damascus before heading off to South America, while the An-124 flew through the Russian military's Khmeimim air base outpost, also in Syria. Malta was said to have granted over- flight clearance to the planes after the Russian embassy in Malta said they were carrying humanitarian assistance and cargo to Venezuela. Subsequent photographs show Russian personnel on the tarmac wearing desert camouflage uniforms and baseball caps similar, if not identical, to the ones com- monly seen on the Kremlin's troops in Syria. The planes fuelled tensions between Russia and the US that were sparked ear- lier this year as the two countries picked opposing sides in Venezuela's debilitat- ing political crisis. Since then, Malta has refused overflight clearance to Russian assets from Syria travelling to Venezuela. For two months now, Venezuelan pres- ident Nicolas Maduro has been locked in a political crisis with American-support- ed Opposition leader Juan Guaido. The US, along with the European Un- ion, has thrown its support behind Ven- ezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. The former leader of the National As- sembly has declared himself the country's interim president and labelled President Nicolas Maduro a "usurper" following his re-election. Moscow insists Maduro is still the country's legitimate leader. Russian for- eign minister Sergey Lavrov has made it clear that Russia will not allow Venezuela to become "another Syria". "We have nothing to hide," he said in response to a question about what Rus- sian troops are doing in the South Amer- ican nation. The United States said the two plane- loads of Russian troops were sent to Ca- racas to support Maduro. The Kremlin claims, however, that they were sent to do maintenance work on military equip- ment Russia supplied to Venezuela sev- eral years ago. Russia has maintenance contracts for weapons sold to Venezuela under late President Hugo Chávez, including air de- fence systems, fighter jets and tanks, that are worth billions of dollars. The arrival of the advisers came as Venezuela activated Russian-made S300 air defence systems last week, according to satellite imagery analysis firm ImageSat Intl. Russia has also recently deployed the S300 in Syria. The Russian government described Malta's decision to close its airspace to Russian military transport planes bound for Venezuela as "not friendly". Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday said the Russian government will take Malta's de- cision "into account" when considering bilateral relations with Valletta. Malta has twice refused permis- sion to Russian military planes bound for Venezuela to use its airspace after a first request had been accepted. Zakharova said the Russian embassy in Malta had asked for permission to al- low Russian planes bound for Venezuela to pass through Malta's airspace. She acknowledged that Malta exercised its sovereign right but went on to say: "The solution of Malta government is not friendly… of course Russia will take this into account in its bilateral relations with Valletta." Zakharova insisted she was "surprised" by the statement that Russia would cause trouble, describing it as "absurd" and "fake news". "This destroys the good image of the mass media in Malta… Russia's position is that we shall not interfere in a sover- eign country no matter how big and what military potential it has," she said. She also recalled the decision in 2016 by the Maltese government to refuse per- mission to allow a Russian warship to re- fuel in Malta on its way to Syria. Showdown over Venezuela Friends: Russian President Vladimir Putin is assisting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro. Right: Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova - Malta solution 'not friendly' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 This newspaper understands that diplomats were told that the OPM had not sent Sceber- ras Trigona to Moscow. "If Sce- berras Trigona is freelancing, it is unclear whether this has the Maltese government's backing," MaltaToday's source said. "If anything, it should be foreign minister Carmelo Abela to take the lead on this." However, a government spokesperson yesterday con- firmed that the PM's envoy had set the meeting with Russia's deputy foreign minister Alex- ander Grushko a few weeks ago "with the aim of discussing ways of commemorating the 30th an- niversary from the Bush-Gor- bachev summit". Sceberras Trigona is known to have good contacts with the Russian diplomats. A govern- ment source with knowledge of the meeting said it was very possible that he discussed Mal- ta's refusal to grant overflight to Russian military assets as well, referring to the events of the week during which Malta refused clearance to Russian flights headed for Venezuela. According to the Russian em- bassy in Malta, Sceberras Trigo- na and Grushko would have discussed "some topics of the international agenda… in par- ticular, the situation in relations between Russia and the EU, the OSCE, the Council Europe." But staff in the Maltese foreign ministry seemed unaware that Sceberras Trigona last week travelled to Moscow to speak to Grushko – right in the week when Malta was refusing over- flight permission to Russian military aircraft on its way to Syria. The role of Sceberras Trigona as a WTO envoy who now is ac- tively speaking to a Russian dep- uty foreign minister also raises the question of whether the Maltese government is short- circuiting diplomatic channels by employing envoys for infor- mal talks. Recently, the Maltese govern- ment defended the presence of an OPM employee and Labour party activist Neville Gafà, who faced allegations of posing as a diplomat to meet Libyan gov- ernment ministers in Tripoli, and Haithem Tajouri, the leader of a militia group known as the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade. Questions to the foreign min- istry earlier last week were in- stantly directed to the Prime Minister's office. "Please refer to the OPM as Alex Sceberras Trigona is the PM's special en- voy," a spokesperson said. Maltese ambassador to Russia, Pierre-Clive Agius, also directed this newspaper to the foreign ministry, when he was asked whether he had been included in Sceberras Trigona's meeting with Grushko. Sceberras Trigona refused to comment when asked what had been discussed with Grush- ko. Attempts to contact him throughout the week proved futile. The importance of the 1989 Malta summit Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami had been in power for just two years when Malta be- came the centre of world at- tention as the leaders of the two global superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, met aboard the Soviet cruiser SS Maxim Gorky off Marsaxlokk Harbour. It was the end of the Cold War, sealed in the stormy weekend of 1-3 December 1989, and a full circle for history: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Church- ill had met in Malta in February 1945, just ahead of their Yalta meeting with Joseph Stalin. It was then the end of World War II, but the start of what became known as the Cold War. Both powers ruled the world through their spheres of influ- ence, the theatres of war and the far reaches of outer space, and the soft power of athletics and sports, arts and intellectualism. In 1989, supporters of West- ern liberalism proclaimed "the end of history". But Russia's emergence from the Cold War was shocked by the problematic reforms of the Yeltsin era. Today in 2019, Rus- sian revanchism is hungry for geopolitical assertion in Crimea and Syria. George H. Bush had called the 1989 summit the start of "a last- ing peace [that] began right here in Malta." For Fenech Adami, it showcased Malta to the world "as a stable country, a nation that could be trusted". If a Trump-Putin meeting had to take place in Malta, Joseph Muscat would be placed at the heart of that international lime- light, no doubt showcasing his administration's model of eco- nomic growth and stability to critics both home and abroad. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt PM's 'entrepreneurial' envoys pursue their own diplomatic channels 1989: USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev and United States president George Bush seal the end of the Cold War