A Russian delegation arrived in Caracas Tuesday as Moscow moves to restore Soviet-era ties in South America heightening tensions with the United States already strained over the crisis in Georgia. Two Russian, nuclear-capable bombers were carrying out exercises over the Caribbean from an air base in Venezuela on Tuesday, and the two countries plan joint naval games before the year is out. The delegation, led by powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's deputy Igor Sechin, was on day two of a regional tour that began on the communist island of Cuba. Russia's current moves to strengthen relations with Cuba, just 150 kilometers off the US coast, and with US foe Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez are a throwback to the regional power play in the Cold War-era. The military exercises over US-patrolled waters appear to be a tit-for-tat measure by Moscow, angered by the presence of US warships in the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia and US plans to build a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. At a summit with the EU last year, then president Putin compared the US missile plans to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 - the closest the two powers ever came to full-scale war.
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