PUTIN is sending Russian warships to the Caribbean for military drills in the coming weeks in a chilling show of force amid boiling tensions with the West.
The ships are also expected to make port calls in Venezuela and Cuba - one of America's long-sworn enemies- US officials said.
The US has been tracking Russian warships and aircraft that are expected to arrive for the naval exercise and will likely remain in the region through the summer.
They will likely conduct further similar, follow-up exercises in the Caribbean, senior Biden administration officials said.
They said: "As part of Russia’s regular military exercises, we anticipate that this summer, Russia will conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States.
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"These actions will culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall."
The US does not see the move involving a relatively small number of vessels and planes as threatening, but the US Navy will monitor the exercises, the official added.
It's not the first time Russia has sent its ships to the Caribbean - last year the Russian navy’s training class ship Perekop sailed into Havana as well and in 2019 the Admiral Gorshkov, one of Russia's most advanced warships was spotted in the same harbour.
This exercise however is taking place after the Russian despot suggested that Moscow could take “asymmetrical steps” elsewhere in the world in response to Biden's call to allow Ukraine to use US-made weapons to strike Russia.
The official stressed that the move is certainly part of a Russian response to the US's support for Ukraine but also an attempt for Putin to show off his navy - after losing several ships to Ukrainian strikes.
"This is about Russia showing that it's still capable of some level of global power projection," the official said.
The Biden administration did not view the deployment with alarm since Russia had sailed ships into the Western Hemisphere yearly from 2013 to 2020, the official said.
"We should expect more of this activity going forward, although we note these deployments incur a cost on the Russian Navy, which is struggling to maintain readiness and conduct deployments with an aged fleet," they added.
Ukrainian military officials said in March that Russia had lost one-third of its Black Sea fleet to Ukrainian strikes during the past two years of war.
Russian ships have appeared on several occasions in Caribbean ports - the most recent one was the training ship, Perekop that docked at Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela last July.
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It had previously docked at ports in Cuba and Nicaragua.
Russia's close relationship with Cuba goes way back in time - as the death of Fidel Castro marked a symbolic end to the Cold War.
The Cuban President who brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war, invited Russian nuclear missiles to be based in Cuba in 1962 - just miles from the US.
Speaking of Castro years later Putin said: “His memory will forever remain in the hearts of the citizens of Russia.”
The Russian leader also praised Castro during his speech at the International Parliamentary Conference Russia-Latin America last year.
He described him as "simply a colossus" adding: "A man who thought about the people every second, and not only about the Cubans.
"He also thought about all of Latin America, and about all the people on the planet."
