Russian warships received a 21-gun salute in Venezuela yesterday as they made their first show of force in America’s backyard since the end of the Cold War.

The nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko arrived at the port of La Guaira before war games in the Caribbean with the Venezuelan Navy.

Their presence was timed to coincide with the visit of President Medvedev today, the first to Venezuela by a Russian leader, as Moscow seeks to reclaim influence in the region.

President Chávez, Venezuela’s fiercely anti-American leader, welcomed the arrival of the task force in what is being seen as a calculated display of Russian defiance to the United States.

Peter the Great, the largest ship in the Russian Navy, is so big that it had to anchor offshore. Venezuelan sailors lined the harbour as the Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels docked. General Jesús González, head of Operations Command in Venezuela, said that eleven ships and eight aircraft would take part in the exercises with the Russian fleet, which includes five aircraft. Some 1,150 Russian and 600 Venezuelan servicemen were involved.

Venezuela showed off two Sukhoi fighter jets recently bought from Russia, which performed a flyover as the task force approached. Mr Chávez has bought more than $4 billion of Russian arms since 2005 and is expected to conclude more deals during Mr Medvedev’s visit.

The Kremlin has described its relationship with Venezuela as a “counterweight to US influence”. The presence of its task force so close to the American coast is seen as a retort to the US decision to send warships to deliver aid to Georgia after the war over South Ossetia in August.

The US State Department laughed off the arrival of the ageing Russian vessels, with its spokesman Sean McCormack asking reporters: “Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?”

Mr Chávez insisted that the manoeuvres were not provocative and described them as an “exchange between two free countries”. He is seeking Russian aid to build Venezuela’s first nuclear power station.

Mr Medvedev, who has also visited Peru and Brazil, will continue his Latin American tour with a trip to communist Cuba, the focus of the 1962 missile crisis between the US and the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said in August that Russia should “restore its position in Cuba” amid speculation that it may seek to open a military base there in response to US plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.

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