The Russian Navy's 19,000-ton nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great is seen in this June 2003 file photo.(Stringer/Reuters)Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington's traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.
Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.
Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev asked on Saturday how Washington would feel "if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean...using our navy."
Later that day, a Venezuelan naval official said four Russian warships would visit 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 battleships. (source)
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