This is a

this is CBS I and the world. I'm John Dutcher of the New World Report with Professor

Evan Ellis U.S. Army War College. We go to Venezuela and the Caribbean, the headline from Reuters, US expecting

Russian naval exercises in Caribbean this summer. The United States does not see the move involving a

relatively small number of vessels and planes as threatening, but the US Navy

will monitor the exercises. This will include port calls in Cuba and stops in Venezuela.

Professor, it is not a secret that adversaries are now very much part of the conversation in many American countries.

Caracas, of course, because of the disorder of these last years, the failed state, Madura, the dictatorship, the driving more than

7 million Venezuelans to other countries, many of whom are now in New York City and Washington

D.C. listening to us. However, what this looks like right now is it's

not about connections with Tehran or Hezbollah or Chinese investors. This is a Russian military flotilla coming to the

Caribbean. Calling it Cuba is not a shock. Stops in Venezuela are

suggestive. Where's this going, Professor? Is this like the great

white fleet of Teddy Roosevelt, Putin showing his strength? Or, and I'll ask that

the concern that I've read.

Is this about supporting Venezuela if and when it moves against Giana?

Well, John, to put this in context, it's important to look at the synergies between Chinese engagement, Russian engagement,

in Iranian engagement, and others in the Western Hemisphere.

And of course, by contrast to China, the engagement by Russia in Iran is much more limited in

economic terms and also in terms of the allies with which it does things, although in the case

of both Iran and Russia, that engagement tends to be much more deliberately provocative toward the United States.

What you also find is traditionally when Russia has wanted to essentially send messages to the United States and project threats into the region.

...