The extent of the event should not be exaggerated. The anti-submarine warfare Udaloy-class destroyer Admiral Chabanenko is certainly not a capital ship. But its transit of the canal, which the United States built and has effectively controlled for the entire 94 years of its existence, did not occur in an isolated context either.

The Admiral Chabanenko made its overnight passage starting from the port of Colon on the Caribbean Sea Friday, and on Saturday afternoon it emerged at the former U.S. base of Rodman in Panama City where it began a high-profile five-day visit.

It was in fact the first time any Russian or Soviet warship had entered the canal since 1944. "The only time a similar event took place was 60 years ago, in 1944, during the Second World War, when four Soviet submarines, after repairs, crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific," the Russian Embassy in Panama announced in a statement.

Russia bent over backward to emphasize the peaceful and non-confrontational nature of the Admiral Chabanenko's visit to Panama. Russian diplomats said sailors from the ship would be carrying out volleyball and soccer matches with the Panamanian navy, not seagoing exercises or live-fire drills.

However, earlier last week the Admiral Chabanenko and its sister vessel, the powerful guided-missile battle cruiser Pyotr Veliky ("Peter the Great") completed two days of real naval exercises -- VenRus-2008 -- carried out with the Venezuelan navy, as we reported in these columns.

RIA Novosti described the activities of the VenRus-2008 exercises as including "deployment, coordinated tactical maneuvering, air defense, search, pursuit and the detention of a ship suspected of illegal activities."

The Rodman Naval Base was built in 1944 during World War II and was the key center for all U.S. naval operations around South America until it was returned to Panama in 1999 under the terms of an agreement negotiated by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

RIA Novosti noted that the wide-ranging cruise of the Pyotr Veliky and the Admiral Chabanenko has already lasted two months and taken them through the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, during which they paid widely publicized visits to Libya, Turkey and France.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last week the Kremlin saw no need to establish any permanent military presence in either Venezuela or Cuba, but it was ready to use the existing military infrastructure in both countries when necessary.

Putin, who last year became prime minister after two successful terms as president of Russia, made his comments during a nationally televised news conference Thursday.

"There is no need to set up permanent bases, although we have such agreements with the Venezuelan leadership. I do not think the Cuban leadership would object either. If necessary, we will be able to use these countries' ports to refuel and replenish supplies for our warships," Putin stated, according to a report from RIA Novosti.

Putin said the "show the flag" visits of the Pyotr Veliky and the Admiral Chabanenko in the Mediterranean and to Venezuela had proved an unanticipated diplomatic success for Russia.

"I'm going to reveal a big military secret to you. When we announced that our warships were headed for Venezuela to participate in a joint exercise, we received many questions -- honestly speaking, I had not expected this -- requests from many countries for our warships to call at their ports," Putin announced.

(Part 2: Russia using weapons systems to calibrate U.S. responses in Latin America)

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