In vista contratti per armamenti, con la visita straordinaria di Gheddafi a Mosca
● Riavvicinamento Russia-Libia: preoccupazioni occidentali per la ventilata offerta da parte libica alla Russia per una sua base navale a Bengasi, sul Mediterraneo:
o il giornale russo Kommersant: una garanzia di difesa da eventuali attacchi USA alla Libia.
o in settembre la Russia ha dispiegato una sua flotta di navi da guerra nel Mediterraneo, con sosta a Tripoli, e continuazione verso il Venezuela.
– L’attuale incontro tra i capi di Stato russo e libico è il primo dal 1985, potrebbe portare alla ripresa dei legami militari tra i due paesi.
– Possibili argomenti dell’incontro: ripresa della cooperazione tecnico-miltare, acquisti di armi ($2MD; interesse ai sistemi di difesa missilistica terra-aria S-300 e Tor-M1; aerei da guerra Su-30 e Mig-29; carri armati T-90), progetto russo di una centrale nucleare in Libia;
– Gheddafi si recherebbe anche in Ucraina e Bielorussia.
– Aprile 2008, Putin a Tripoli sigla un accordo per la cancellazione di miliardi di $ debito libico in cambio di grandi contratti con i gruppi russi,
o tra questi accordo Gazprom e società energetica nazionale libica; contratto da $2,8MD per la costruzione da parte del monopolio ferroviario russo di una linea ferroviaria in Libia.
Gheddafi ha però ritardato la realizzazione degli accordi, ha irritato Mosca rifiutando di entrare in una OPEC del gas con Russia e Qatar.
– Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi met President Dmitry Medvedev Friday on his first visit to Moscow since 1985, a trip that could revive military ties between Tripoli and its Cold war ally. "Our countries have friendly ties that have continued for decades," Medvedev said at the talks in the Russian leader’s residence outside Moscow.
The Libyan leader responded: "I hope this visit will be fruitful for our relations."
– Arms purchases and nuclear energy are on the cards for Gadhafi’s three-day visit. Libya might also offer to host a Russian naval base on its Mediterranean coastline, a move likely to alarm the West, a Russian newspaper reported.
Gadhafi was expected to meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
One topic of this weekend’s talks would be "military-technical cooperation," a Kremlin official said ahead of Gadhafi’s visit, using a term that typically describes arms purchases.
– Tripoli bought many of its arms from Moscow during the Cold war, which was still raging when Gadhafi last visited 23 years ago.
Talks could also touch on "the peaceful atom," the Kremlin official said, following previous reports that Russia was in talks about building a nuclear power plant in Libya.
– The Kommersant daily reported Friday that Gadhafi might also offer to host a Russian naval base in the Libyan port of Benghazi, citing a source close to the preparations for his visit.
– "The Russian military presence will be a guarantee of nonaggression against Libya from the US," the daily said.
– For Russia, a Mediterranean base would cement its military resurgence after it dispatched a flotilla of warships in a show of might last month. The ships stopped in Tripoli this month and are due to continue to Venezuela.
– Libya could agree to buy over $2 billion of Russian arms this weekend, Interfax news agency reported Friday, citing a source in the Russian Defense Industry.
– It was interested in S-300 and Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile systems, Su-30 and Mig-29 fighter jets and T-90 battle tanks, the source said.
– According to Libyan sources in Moscow, Gadhafi would visit Ukraine and Belarus after his visit to Russia.
– Relations have warmed significantly this year between Russia and Libya, which began to shed its pariah status in 2003 when it renounced weapons of mass destruction and agreed to compensate families of victims of the 1988-bombing of a Pan Am airliner blamed on Tripoli.
– The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday the countries shared a "common position" on the importance of a "multi-polar world," a term used by Moscow to describe its opposition to US global dominance.
– In April, during a visit to Tripoli by Putin, who was then Russia’s president, Moscow agreed to cancel billions of dollars of Libyan Soviet-era debt in exchange for big contracts with Russian companies.
o The deals included a cooperation pact between Russian gas-giant Gazprom and Libya’s national energy company, as well as a $2.8 billion contract for Russia’s rail monopoly to build a railway line in Libya.
But Gadhafi has dragged his feet on implementing the deals and he angered Moscow by refusing to bring his energy-rich country into a "gas OPEC" with Russia and Qatar, Kommersant said Friday. – AFP