Historical Panama Crossing - Ship Visiting Panama

It was announced this week that a Russian warship has traversed the Panama Canal for the first time in 60 years.

The Admiral Cabanenko, a 554-foot ship that is part of Russia’s Northern Fleet, entered the port of Colon on Friday. The ship is docked at Rodman, the former US naval base.

The move was seen as part of joint Russian-Venezuelan naval efforts. There were two days of joint exercises with Venezuelan navy vessels. The Russian Ambassador to Panama, Yevgeny Voronin called the exercise a “gesture of friendship” that was aimed at “honing its role in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking”. The Panamanian foreign minister, Samuel Lewis Navarro, commented “as we all know, the Panama Canal is open to all ships in the world”.

The ship’s crossing from the Atlantic to Pacific is the first time a Russian ship has crossed the Canal since WWII in 1944 when four Soviet submarines, that had been repaired, crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At that time, the Canal was under US control and
Russia and the US were allied in an anti-Nazi coalition.

The Admiral Cabanenko is expected to depart later on Tuesday. The Russian crew was expected to take part in soccer and volleyball competitions with the Panamanian navy in the meantime…..

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