Russia will be sending a warship through the Panama Canal for the first voyage through the Canal since Word War II. A Russian destroyer will dock at a former US naval base for the purposes of showing Russia's growing influence in Latin America.

The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko is set to make it's voyage through the Canal Friday morning and arrive later that day at Panama's Balboa Naval Base.

"It is a sort of tit-for-tat for Russia's perception of U.S. meddling in Georgia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe," and has little military purpose, said Adam Isacson, an analyst for the Washington-based Center for International Policy. Source: AP News

Officials with the United States government have expressed no concern over the Russian Destroyer: a similiar stance to the one they made when the ship was involved in joint exercises with the Venezuelan Navy earlier this week.

The Admiral Chabanenko was in Venezuela on an invitation from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken detractor of the United States and it's influence in Latin America.

Authorities with the Panama government said they are treating the Russian warship like any other toll paying ship a stark change from Cold War times when the Canal was run by the United States.

"This isn't the moment where I think the (U.S.) conservatives will get too alarmed," said Shifter. "Perhaps if they had done it even a couple of months ago there would have been more concern, in the context of the Georgia crisis when oil prices hadn't dropped they way they have. Russia is now seen as sort of a weaker position then they were before." Source: AP News

An advisor to the PRD party, Mario Rognoni, said that the Russian visit demonstrates how times have changed and how Panama has shown neutrality in operating the Canal.