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Cuba - Ailing Fidel Castro said Wednesday that Cuba's president was right to adopt a "dignified silence" over a Moscow newspaper report that Russia may send nuclear bombers to the island, and said Cuba doesn't owe any explanation to Washington about the story.

In a brief, cryptic essay posted on a government Web site Wednesday night, the 81-year-old former president neither confirmed nor denied the Monday report in Izvestia newspaper.

Moscow is angry about U.S. plans for missile-defense sites in eastern Europe and Izvestia cited a "highly placed" military aviation source as saying, "While they are deploying the anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, our long-range strategic aircraft already will be landing in Cuba." Izvestia said this apparently refers to long-range nuclear-capable bombers.

Izvestia points out that there would have to be a political decision on landing bombers in Cuba, and quoted the unnamed source as saying there have been such discussions.

Former Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Anatoly Kornukov told Russia's Interfax news agency Thursday that the country's "strategic bombers are entitled to use airfields in any country, including Cuba, as long as its leaders do not object."

A well informed military-diplomatic official in Moscow told CBS News Thursday that Russian strategic bombers "could use an airfield in Cuba for refueling during flights for air patrol over the Atlantic." The source spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic.

Kornukov's statement was made in response to remarks earlier in the week by the nominee for U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, who said a move by Moscow to position nuclear weapons on the Caribbean Island would cross "a red line for the United States of America".

The London-based AFX news wire quoted Schwartz as saying: "If they did I think we should stand strong and indicate that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line for the United States."

"The statement by Gen. Schwartz cannot be called other than inadequate and childish," Kornukov said, according to Interfax, which, like all Russian media, is closely monitored by the Kremlin. "Gen. Schwartz, being a professional, must know that missile carriers have the right to fly over neutral waters in any part of the world, which, by the way, is what U.S. bombers are doing as well."