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MOSCOW-Russia moved Friday to rebuild ties with Cold War ally Cuba, granting it loans and signing deals on energy and industrial cooperation.Cuban President Raul Castro held top-level Kremlin talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. His weeklong trip is the first visit by a Cuban leader to the Russian capital in nearly 25 years and highlighted Kremlin efforts to expand its global clout and reinvigorate Soviet-era alliances.The Soviet Union poured billions of dollars in supplies and subsidies to its staunchest Latin American ally during the Cold War, but ties languished after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Emboldened by oil wealth, Russia has sought to project its power into the Western Hemisphere, but that effort has fallen as oil prices have plummeted in recent months, and it may have trouble bankrolling its old ally.Welcoming Castro to an ornate Kremlin hall, Medvedev said the talks offer a chance to rebuild the old friendship."Your visit will turn a new page in the history of Russia-Cuba relations" and take them to a "new, strategic level," he said. "Undoubtedly this is a very important moment, a key landmark in relations between Russia and Cuba," Castro said.After the talks, Medvedev and Castro signed a "memorandum of strategic partnership."Details of the memorandum were not publicly revealed. Officials also signed a deal for Russia to provide a government loan to Cuba and other credits intended to finance purchases of Russian construction, energy and agricultural equipment. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Moscow's pointman on relations with Cuba and other Latin American nations, refused to say how much Russia would lend, saying the parties agreed to keep the figure confidential...By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
As in the days of Noah...
