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PANAMA CITY, Panama-Russia said Wednesday it is sending a warship through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II, a short journey loaded with symbolic weight: the destroyer will dock at a former U.S. naval base, showcasing Russia's growing influence in the region.Russia appears to be relishing the idea of stopping at what was long a symbol of U.S. global power; the Russian Navy announced it would visit "the Rodman naval base"-a name that the host nation, Panama has not used since taking over the base from the United States in 1999.The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko(picture left) is scheduled to enter the Panama Canal on Friday morning and arrive late in the day at what Panama calls the Balboa Naval Base."It is a sort of tit-for-tat for Russia's perception of U.S. meddling in Georgia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe," and has little military purpose, said Adam Isacson, an analyst for the Washington-based Center for International Policy.Russia, like the United States, already has ports with access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."Sending a destroyer through the Panama canal obviously has a lot of symbolic significance (and) this is primarily symbolism," said analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.U.S. officials have expressed no concern over the visit — continuing a stance they took when the ship earlier participated in joint exercises with Venezuela's navy, which concluded Monday.Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who campaigns against U.S. influence in the hemisphere, invited the Admiral Chabanenko and the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great to join the exercises, adding to his growing military ties with the Kremlin.Panamanian authorities said they would treat the Admiral Chabanenko as just another toll-paying ship, and the calm surrounding the visit is a sign of how far the country has come since it served as a Cold War bastion studded with U.S. military bases when the Canal Zone was U.S. control....To read more go to:
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