Havana: Cuban President Raul Castro attended the opening of a Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Havana on Sunday in the latest sign of improved relations between Havana and Moscow.

The ceremony was part of activities in Cuba known as the Day of Russia in Cuba, and which also included concerts and the screening of feature films and documentaries made in Russia.

The event coincided with the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

"This is a monument to Russian-Cuban friendship and all the efforts that have preserved our relations including the most difficult moments of the Cold War," Metropolitan Kiril, a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church and head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said at the opening.