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© AFP/Adalberto RoqueA Soviet-made Lada limousine passes by Russian Vishnya (also known as Meridian) class warship CCB-175 Viktor Leonov, docked, on February 26, 2014, at Havana harbor.
A Russian spy ship docked in Havana on Wednesday, and neither Cuba nor Russia offered any mention or explanation of the mysterious visit that is reminiscent of the Cold War.

AFP reported that the Viktor Leonov CCB-175 boat, that measures 300 feet long and 47.5 feet wide, appeared in the section of Havana's port usually used by cruise ships.

The intelligence vessel bristles with electronic eavesdropping equipment and weaponry, including AK-630 rapid-fire cannons and surface-to-air missiles.

Cuba's visitor is from the Vishnya or Meridian-class, which was built for Russia's navy in the 1980s and is still in service today. AFP reports that the Viktor Leonov has a crew of about 200 sailors.

Previous visits by Russian military ships to Cuba have usually been acknowledged by the state's media or authorities.

Meanwhile, the United States warned Moscow over Russia's maneuvers near the troubled Ukraine.


Russia ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness Wednesday in a show of force that prompted a blunt warning from the US that any military intervention in Ukraine would be a 'grave mistake.'

Vladimir Putin's announcement of huge new war games came as Ukraine's protest leaders named a millionaire former banker to head a new government after the pro-Russian president went into hiding.

The new government, which is expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday, will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse.

Its fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital last week.

In Kiev's Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement against Yanukovych, the interim leaders who seized control after he disappeared proposed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country's new prime minister.

The 39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010, and is widely viewed as a technocratic reformer who enjoys the support of the U.S.

Across Ukraine, the divided allegiances between Russia and the West were on full display as fistfights broke out between pro- and anti-Russia protesters in the strategic Crimea peninsula.
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© East News/REXTension A Pro-Russia demonstration in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine on Tuesday. Across Ukraine, the divided allegiances between Russia and the West were on full display as fistfights broke out between pro- and anti-Russia protesters.
Amid the tensions, Putin put the military on alert for massive exercises involving most of the military units in western Russia, and announced measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

The maneuvers will involve some 150,000 troops, 880 tanks, 90 aircraft and 80 navy ships, and are intended to 'check the troops' readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security,' Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

The move prompted a sharp rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine.

'Any kind of military intervention that would violate the sovereign territorial integrity of Ukraine would be a huge, a grave mistake,' Kerry told reporters in Washington.

'The territorial integrity of Ukraine needs to be respected,' Kerry said.