Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev is due to visit Venezuela and Cuba as part of a week-long tour through South America that underscores Russia's revival of Soviet-era ties in the region along old lines of opposition to US hegemony. Medvedev's four-nation trip began Friday in Peru at the forum of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, where he will participate alongside outgoing US President George W Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
He will then meet with the leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil (November 24-25), which industry experts say is newly interested in the purchase of Russian-made weapons and military technology.
Next Medvedev heads to Venezuela (November 26-27) for bilateral talks with avid US critic President Hugo Chavez, whose administration is a key Russian arms client.
The visit to Caracas falls as the two countries' hold their first joint naval exercise in the US-patrolled waters of the Caribbean - also the first time that Russia has held such large-scale military games in the Western Hemisphere since Soviet times.
The Kremlin leader's trip culminates in a visit to Cuba (November 27), one of the Soviet Union's closest allies and strategic outposts during the Cold War located so near the US coast of Florida.
The monumental tour seemingly capitalizes on opposition to US unilateral foreign policy, allowing both Russia and Western leaders to flex their muscles and reveal independence in an area traditionally considered to be within Washington's sphere of influence.
Observers note the Kremlin's foreign policy initiative is part of a long-term strategy to counter US power born out of opposition to growing US influence in post-Soviet states formerly under Moscow's yoke, among other security differences including the recent conflict in Georgia and US missile defence plans in Eastern Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in comments to news agency Ria-Novosti Monday insisted Russian ties with South America were not aimed at "third countries," like the United States.
But Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean and long-range air force flights to the region have been much played up in the Russian media, and often as an immediate response to US moves near Russia's southern border in Georgia.
Moscow was angered by the presence of NATO and US warships in the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia following the August war between Russia and Georgia.
Many analysts see the trip as a new foreign policy challenge for US president-elect Barack Obama.
Medvedev's first state-of-the-nation speech fell on the day of Obama's election victory, but the Russian president chose the occasion to announce plans to deploy Russian semi-ballistic missiles in its European exclave on the Baltic Sea.
While he later said he hoped for better relations with the new US administration, Russia has now drawn a firm line on missile defence with the threat to deploy missiles unless the United States withdraws plans to base missile defence elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.
