Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana. Photo: AFP

Moscow: Russia has decided to reopen an electronic eavesdropping post in Cuba that it closed more than a decade ago, reaching out for a one-time symbol of its global superpower status, Russian officials and newspaper reports said.

President Vladimir Putin agreed with Cuba's leader Raul Castro to reopen the post during a visit to Cuba last week. In exchange, Mr Putin agreed to forgive about 90 per cent of Cuba's Soviet-era debt to Russia, about $US32 billion ($34.2 billion).

News of the debt relief emerged last week, but the agreement to reopen the listening post was first reported on Wednesday by the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

The Russian eavesdropping post at Lourdes, as seen in 2000.

The Russian eavesdropping post at Lourdes, as seen in 2000. Photo: Reuters

Members of the Russian Parliament appeared to confirm the report in public statements praising what seemed to be a step by Russia towards re-establishing a military presence in Cuba, at a time when the conflict in Ukraine has sent Russian-US relations spiraling to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. The US and Europe significantly strengthened sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine on Wednesday, with Washington for the first time directly targeting Russia's banking, military and energy sectors.

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on the listening post, noting there was no formal announcement from Moscow.

Russia vacated the listening post site at Lourdes, outside Havana, in 2001. At the time, Mr Putin cited the strapped finances of the post-Soviet Russian government and said the war in Chechnya was a higher priority than maintaining a Cold War relic half a world away.

While in Cuba Vladimir Putin also met with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

While in Cuba Vladimir Putin also met with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Photo: AP

The US Congress had also pressed Russia to move out of Lourdes, linking the abandonment of the site with deals to restructure Russia's heavy foreign debt.

Russia closed a listening post at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, at the same time. There were no indications on Wednesday that the Kremlin intended to revive that post.

In its heyday, the Soviet signals intelligence base at Lourdes enabled Moscow to listen in on microwave transmissions of telephone conversations in the south-eastern United States, keep an eye on the US Navy in the Atlantic, monitor the space program at Cape Canaveral and communicate with its spies on US soil.

In 1993, when Mr Castro was chief of the Cuban armed forces, he boasted that Russia obtained 75 per cent of its strategic intelligence on the US through Lourdes.

The facility includes a large array of satellite dishes and antennas spread over about 72 square kilometres, about 240 kilometres from the Florida coast. The Kommersant report said that a decade of booming oil revenue meant that Russia could once again afford to operate Lourdes, and that deteriorating relations with the United States prompted a desire to reopen a peephole on a ''potential enemy''.

When he was in Havana, Mr Putin spoke publicly of a revival of military and technological co-operation with Cuba but gave no specifics.

The report in Kommersant, citing unnamed officials in the Russian security establishment, said that Mr Putin and Mr Castro had reached an agreement in principle but that details remained to be worked out.

Viktor Mukharovsky, a retired colonel, said the Russian military was ''extraordinarily interested'' in reactivating the post, which could help it gauge the state of readiness of the US military, among other things.

''It's no secret that when we left in 2001, we expected to launch a fleet of radio electronic surveillance satellites,'' he said. ''But we never found the money, and – speaking softly – our satellite surveillance capabilities are still modest.''

He said the Kremlin was unlikely to send Russian troops to guard the base.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama said the new sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine were "significant, but they are also targeted, designed to have the maximum impact on Russia".

The sanctions included moves against two major Russian financial institutions, Gazprombank and VEB, and two giant Russian energy firms, OA Novatek and Rosneft, which will limit access to US capital markets. The US Treasury said eight Russian arms firms would also face direct sanctions.

"We have to see concrete actions, not just words, that Russia in fact is committed to trying to end this conflict," Mr Obama said.

Russia called the new sanctions outrageous and unacceptable, and threatened retaliation.

New York Times, AFP, Reuters