Russian navy: Russian warships to visit Cuba

[December 15, 2008]  MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian navy says its warships will visit Cuba for the first time since the Soviet era.

The navy says a squadron that has been on a lengthy visit to Latin America will put in at Havana on Friday for a five-day stay.

Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo says it will be the first visit by Russian warships to the Communist-led island just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the United States since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko arrived in the Caribbean last month in a deployment also unprecedented since Soviet times. The voyage is widely seen as a response to the United States' use of warships to deliver aid to Russia's neighbor Georgia after their war in August.

[Associated Press]

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