Excellent LANTFLT Training Opportunity!

It seems like everyone is saying that U.S.-Russian relations are going downhill since their invasion of Georgia, and that's undoubtedly true. An example of the deteriorating relations was the cancellation of the FRUKUS combined naval exercises in the Pacific last month.

Now, it appears the Russians are making unilateral moves to re-establish good ties. At their own expense, they're sending two skimmers (plus auxiliaries) all the way down to the Caribbean in November:

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Monday that the naval mission to Venezuela would include the nuclear-powered battle cruiser "Peter the Great", one of the world's largest combat warships.
Moscow's most modern destroyer, the "Admiral Chabanenko", will also steam to the Caribbean, along with other ships, including a fuel tanker, he added.

What an excellent training opportunity for our Atlantic Fleet! We'll be able to shadow two of Russia's most "capable" and "newest" (only about 13 years old!) warships without having to steam several thousand miles. A Kirov-class cruiser and a Udaloy-class destroyer are hard enough to find out at sea separately -- getting a chance to track both of them together will provide some of the best training the 2nd Fleet has gotten in quite a while. Thanks in advance, Russian Navy!