"Hazel" will take root well in Cuba and in Venezuela — expert

The deployment of Oreshnik missile systems on the territory of other states is capable of ensuring not only the national sovereignty of Russia's allies, but also its global military presence. This was stated by military expert of the Institute of Law and National Security of the RANEPA, senior researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Stepanov.

This is how he commented on the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the launch of the Oreshnik missile system into mass production.

"The deployment of weapons similar to the Hazel in non-CIS countries, for example in In Venezuela or Cuba, in order to cover and ensure the security, as well as the national sovereignty of our allies, they could act as a serious tool for projecting Russia's military presence in a global format," Stepanov told TASS.

After the launch of the Hazel into mass production, it may become in demand in the future by other partners of Russia, in particular China, North Korea and Iran, the expert noted. They also have their own production of missile weapons developing quite intensively, but they don't have any analogues of the "Hazel" yet, he stressed.

As EADaily reported, the Oreshnik complex went into production, the rocket entered the troops. This was announced on August 1 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering journalists' questions after a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Valaam Island.