George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, John McCain, and the crazy Neocons have been playing "poke the giant" around Russia in places like Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

So Russia decided to retaliate by strengthening military and business relations in places like Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Here's a good roundup from Bloomberg News:

Russia Builds Ties in Latin America to Challenge U.S.

By Henry Meyer

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is in talks to build a space center in Cuba as it forges closer ties with Latin American countries opposed to the U.S. in the wake of Cold War-era tensions sparked by the Georgia conflict.

The head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, who visited Havana with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin earlier this week, made the announcement in a statement posted today on the agency's Web Site.

After Cuba, Sechin traveled to Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez heads to Moscow next week, and Nicaragua. Russia is playing its most active role in the region since the Soviet era, in a challenge to the U.S. in its traditional backyard.

``We're increasing our presence in Latin America -- the countries in the region themselves want this,'' said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov. ``There's a big power in the north. They need a counterweight,'' he said by telephone from Moscow today, referring to the U.S.

Russia has sold billions of dollars of weapons to oil-rich Venezuela in recent years. Since the August war with U.S.-backed Georgia provoked a rift with the West, Russia has stepped up efforts to bolster its influence in Latin America.

``The worse Russia's ties with the West become, the more it will look for allies elsewhere,'' said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of the USA and Canada Institute in Moscow. ``Russia can play the role of a great power; it can sell oil, weapons and nuclear technology.''

Ties With Nicaragua

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, whose revolutionary Sandinista government was supported by military aid from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, said yesterday after talks with Sechin that he planned to strengthen ties with Russia. Sechin said Russia will study plans to fund energy projects and boost trade. Nicaragua was the only country to follow Russia in recognizing the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions.

Bolivia, South America's poorest country, will turn to Russia to replace U.S. funding for its anti-drugs program, the Bolivian government said yesterday.

Bolivia will send representatives to Russia to wrap up an agreement to provide it with helicopters, logistical support and military training to help the fight against drug trafficking, La Razon reported today, citing Felipe Caceres, Bolivia's vice minister of social defense.

Strained Ties

Relations between the U.S. and Bolivia have soured in the past week after President Evo Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador for allegedly helping foment violence in the opposition stronghold of eastern Bolivia.

Russia's Foreign Ministry yesterday criticized what it termed efforts to undercut Bolivia's territorial integrity and ``all forms of outside interference in the affairs of this sovereign Latin American nation.''

Morales, Ortega and Chavez are close allies who oppose the historic U.S. influence in Latin America. By courting Russia, ``Latin American states can demonstrate to the U.S. that if it doesn't treat them with respect, they have other countries they can turn to,'' Kremenyuk said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be in Peru in late November for the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group and plans a weeklong regional trip, his office said today.

Sechin's visit to Cuba followed one he made in July to the Cold War-era ally. Russian newspaper reports of plans to station nuclear bombers on the Caribbean island prompted warnings from the U.S. not to cross ``a red line'' and were later denied by Russia.

U.S. Missile System

Russia opposes proposed U.S. missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, former Communist-era satellites. It's also resisting further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine, accusing the U.S. of threatening its security by moving militarily up to Russia's borders.

Chavez last week welcomed two Russian TU 160 bombers, which flew from Venezuela to conduct training flights over neutral waters. Venezuela is planning a joint naval exercise in the Caribbean later this year with Russian warships, including the atomic-powered Peter the Great cruiser.

The Venezuelan leader will be in Moscow for the second time in two months next week. Three Russian oil companies signed exploration deals for Venezuela during Chavez's last visit to Russia in July.

Russia is currently in talks to sell air defense systems, armored personnel carriers and new-generation Su-35 fighter jets to Venezuela, the Kommersant newspaper reported, citing state industrial holding company Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov.

So how is our Russia expert-in-chief responding? With typical Bushevik denial and trash talk.

Rice says West must resist Russian "bullying"

Reuters/Susan Cornwell
Thu Sep 18, 6:17 PM ET

The West must stand up to "bullying" by Moscow, which is becoming increasingly authoritarian and aggressive, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a speech highly critical of Russia on Thursday.

In her first major address on Russia since its incursion into Georgia last month, Rice said Moscow had taken a "dark turn" that left its global standing worse than at any time since 1991, when it emerged from the fall of the Soviet Union.

Rice, a former Soviet expert who has presided over a steady deterioration of relations with Russia, said Moscow's invasion of Georgia was part of a pattern that included its use of oil and natural gas as a political weapon, the suspension of a treaty on conventional forces in Europe and a threat to target peaceful nations with nuclear weapons.

"The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad," Rice said in the speech to the German Marshall Fund.

The United States and Europe must not allow Russian actions in Georgia to achieve any benefit, she said. "Not in Georgia. Not anywhere," she said.

"Our strategic goal now is to make it clear to Russia's leaders that their choices are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance."

Umm Condi, Russia isn't facing isolation, it's expanding throughout Latin America!

Moscow was internationally condemned for sending troops to Georgia to stop Tbilisi's attempt to reassert control over the pro-Russian, separatist region of South Ossetia.

Moscow later recognized South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent states, and on Wednesday signed treaties to protect them from Georgian attack.

The Kremlin said it had a moral duty to defend the regions against what it called "genocide" by Georgia's military.

But some political analysts have said Russia's actions heighten the risk of Moscow attempting to exert more influence over other former Soviet territories, particularly Ukraine.

'SPHERE OF INFLUENCE'

Rice rejected a Russian "sphere of influence" over its neighbors and hoped Russia leaders would "overcome their nostalgia for another time."

Umm Condi, you've squandered the American "sphere of influence" over Latin America, which dates back to another time - the presidency of James Monroe.

"We cannot afford to validate the prejudices that some Russian leaders seem to have: that if you pressure free nations enough -- if you bully, and threaten, and lash out -- we will cave in, and forget, and eventually concede," Rice said.

"The United States and Europe must stand up to this kind of behavior, and all who champion it."

She also scoffed at Moscow's recent dispatch of "Blackjack" bombers to U.S. foe Venezuela.

Rice said Russia's behavior threatened its participation in a number of global diplomatic, economic and security bodies, including the Group of Eight industrialized nations, and jeopardized Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

But she said Washington would continue to pursue areas of common concern with Russia, from denuclearizing the Korean peninsula to stopping Iran's rulers from acquiring nuclear weapons and combating terrorism, underscoring Washington's need for Moscow to play a role in international negotiations.

Rice, who called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to tell him she was giving the speech, said the door remained open for Georgia and Ukraine to eventually join the NATO alliance.

But some European governments have misgivings about allowing those states to take the first step toward joining NATO, and successfully blocked the move earlier this year.

In London, Pentagon chief Robert Gates used a less critical tone when asked whether NATO should change its operational posture toward Russia as a result of events in Georgia.

"I think we need to proceed with some caution because there clearly is a range of views in the alliance about how to respond, from some of our friends in eastern Europe and the Baltic states, to some of the countries in western Europe," Gates said.

One U.S. analyst said he did not see the point of Rice's speech. "It didn't lay out a framework that showed American leadership for where do we go from here," said Robert Hunter, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO now with the RAND corporation.

Nope, it was just trash talk - the only thing the Busheviks are good at.

Heckuva job, Condi!