US in ‘hysterics’ after Russian nuclear-capable bombers land in Venezuela

The Kremlin has slammed Washington’s “undiplomatic” response to its deployment of two bomber planes to Venezuela for exercises.

Two Russian long-range strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Monday for what the Venezuelan government said were air force exercises aimed at strengthening the defence of the leftist-ruled South American country.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Twitter condemned Russia for “sending bombers halfway around the world”.

He said the deployment was a case of “two corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer”.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “this is of course highly undiplomatic of the secretary of state” and called Pompeo’s tweet “unacceptable”.

Answering the accusation of squandering funds, Peskov said: “We don’t agree with this, what’s more it’s probably not very appropriate for a country to make such statements when half its defence budget could feed the whole of Africa.”