Fears are growing in Italy that Russia will base nuclear submarines at a naval port it hopes to establish in eastern Libya, dramatically boosting Russian influence in the central Mediterranean and placing nuclear weapons on Europe’s southern flank.
This week Russia’s deputy defence minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov paid his fourth visit since last August to visit general Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman running eastern Libya.
The two men have reportedly discussed the opening of a Russian naval base at Tobruk, potentially adding to Moscow’s two current bases in the eastern Mediterranean, at Tartus and Latakia in Syria.
“I believe the Russians will want to prioritise basing nuclear submarines at Tobruk before surface vessels,” said Vincenzo Camporini a former head of the Italian armed forces and analyst
