In a stark reminder of one of the Cold War's most tense and dangerous moments, a Russian fleet has travelled to Cuba, including a nuclear-powered submarine and a frigate, to start an exercise on the use of "high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic Ocean".

       In a statement, the Russian Defence Ministry said: "A combined tactical surface action group of the Northern Fleet made up of the Project 885M multi-role nuclear submarine cruiser Kazan and frigate Admiral Gorshkov carrying out long-distance missions, started an exercise on the use of high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic Ocean.

       "As part of the exercise, the frigate and nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser practise the use of high-precision missile weapons by computer-based maritime simulation at targets indicating the ship-based groupings of a mock enemy and located at a distance of more than 600 kilometres."

       The statement continued: "A few days before, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov which is carrying out long-distance voyage to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Northern Fleet detachment conducted a training exercise to repel an air attack."

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       It ended by saying: "As part of the exercise, the crews practised interaction of command posts and combat posts, and launching attacks with AK-192M naval artillery systems and Palash surface-to-air missile and artillery system against simulated air targets."

       The US Navy has been tracking the nuclear submarine with the P-8 Poseidon “submarine hunter” plane.

       Cuba's foreign ministry said the Russian warships will stay in their capital, Havana, until June 17, noting that they are not armed with nuclear weapons. The ministry added that their presence “does not pose a threat to the region”.

       Euronews reported that Russian sources claimed the fleet passed a few dozen kilometres from the Florida coast.

       Despite this, White House spokesman John Kirby said that the United States was monitoring the situation but "did not see it as a threat to its national security".

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       This, of course, is not the first time the Kremlin has sought to impose itself on the West, particuarly the USA, by acting aggressively around Cuba.

       Nikita Khrushchev's decision to move medium-range missiles to the Castro-run country in 1962 sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis during 13 days in October.

       It is regarded as an episode in which the world came very close to all-out nuclear war.