A Russian warship Friday sailed through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II, BBC online reports.
The Admiral Chabanenko had earlier completed manoeuvres with Venezuelas navy, coinciding with a Latin American tour by the Russian president. The 80 km canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was shut to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The canal journey, the naval exercises and President Dmitry Medvedevs visit to the region have been seen as aimed at strengthening Russias influence in a traditional American zone of influence.
The first and only time Soviet warships used the Panama Canal was in 1944, when the USSR and US were fighting as allies against Hitler. Four Soviet submarines then crossed the Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific after undergoing repairs.
