After passing through Cuba, the fleet of Russian military vessels arrived at a port in Venezuela on Tuesday. What is known?

BRussian military units from the Northern Fleet have arrived at the Venezuelan port of La Guaira, near Caracas, where they will stay for “several days,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

The objective of their presence in the region is to “show the flag and guarantee a naval presence in important operational areas,” the ministry said in a statement.

The stopover will last “several days” and then the ships will continue their “work” in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, he said.

The ships include the Admiral Gorshkov, the most advanced frigate in the Russian fleet, in service since 2018, and the oil tanker Akademik Pashin.

The statement said that both were moored in La Guaira, near Caracas.

Russia and Venezuela have strong ties. In February, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as his “big brother.”

Maduro also said at the time that Putin’s re-election was “a good omen for the world.”

The Venezuelan leader himself is running for re-election in the upcoming presidential elections on July 28.

Before reaching Venezuela, the Russian ships made a stopover in Cuba in mid-June, accompanied by a nuclear-powered submarine and a tugboat.

The unusual Russian deployment about 150 kilometres off the US coast of Florida came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.

Before entering Havana port, the ships took part in an “exercise on the use of high-precision missile weapons,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

These were the last hours of the Russian submarine’s passage through Cuba

The Russian nuclear-powered submarine “Kazan” left Havana port in mid-June, where it remained anchored for five days in full view of the people of Havana, while an American nuclear submarine, also equipped with nuclear weapons, arrived at the Guantanamo naval base on June 18.

Shortly before 10:00 a.m. local time, the large black shell of the Kazan crossed the mouth of Havana Bay to sail out to the open sea, followed half an hour later by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, while the oil tanker Pashin was maneuvering to leave the ship.

The Russian fleet, which also included the rescue tug “Nikolai Chiker”, arrived in the Cuban capital on Wednesday amid great excitement among residents, who came to the port to see a nuclear submarine with their own eyes.

The rare Russian deployment just 150 kilometres off the coast of Florida comes amid rising tensions over the war in Ukraine, which has been backed by the West in its fight against a Russian invasion.

The US military said it was closely monitoring the presence of the Russian ships, but that they did not pose a direct threat.

Additionally, the Canadian ship “Margaret Brooke” arrived in Cuba on June 19 and left the island two days later.

During the Cold War, the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war.