Cuba-Russian aid in tractors and finance for agriculure.

CUBA-TALK WITH RUSSIA.

Cuban President Raul Castro was to meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev Thursday in a bid to revive Soviet-era ties as he paid the first visit to Moscow by a Cuban leader since the Cold War.

He was to hold informal talks with Medvedev at the Zavidovo hunting lodge near Moscow, the same place where Soviet leaders once entertained their closest foreign allies, in a rare honor for a visiting dignitary in modern Russia.

Castro, who took over as president from his ailing brother Fidel in 2006, said his visit would expand relations with Russia, healing a rift that emerged with the Soviet Union’s collapse and the end of Soviet subsidies to Havana.

"We, like many others, see Russia’s rebirth as a positive factor," Castro, 77, told the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.

"Relations between Russia and Cuba are excellent and this visit to Moscow will serve to strengthen ties between our countries.

Raul Castro, who was flown to Moscow Wednesday on a Russian presidential jet, made several Soviet-era visits to Moscow between 1960 and 1984 as well as a visit he made to Communist-ruled Romania in 1953.

It was announced on Friday, that aid had been granted in loans and agricultural equipment.