Russia and Cuba united pressure from the West and Fidel Castro

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel arrived on November 22 for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin (for the first time in three years) already prepared. In the morning, the Cuban delegation was received at Okhotny Ryad, and not by chance.

Exactly nine months ago, on February 23, a Duma delegation, including the speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, and his first deputy, Ivan Melnikov (the communist in charge of communications with the island of Freedom), was in Havana. The deputies talked with Diaz-Canel and visited the Fidel Castro Center, dedicated to the life and legacy of the leader of the Cuban revolution. “Despite the blockade, Cuba lives,” Volodin shared his impressions, noting that this is Castro’s “greatest legacy.”

Diaz-Canel arrived in Moscow on a return visit when the geopolitical situation had changed somewhat. In the State Duma, he already told Volodin that Cuba “welcomes all the efforts that Russia is making to maintain a multipolar regime in the world”: “We condemn unilateral coercive sanctions (that is, the same blockade. – Vedomosti) that the US and the West impose against Russia, we consider them unfair. And once again we would like to confirm that Russia can always count on Cuba.”

After the conversation in Okhotny Ryad, the Cuban leader went to the Sokol region (where, by the way, communist sentiments were also strong). There, back in 2017, one of the sections of the alley on the street. Novopeschanaya was named Castro Square, and from the evening of November 21, they were actively preparing for the opening of a monument (carefully wrapped in a tarpaulin) with the participation of two presidents.

The leaders of the Cuban revolution, as Putin noted, “have always selflessly defended the sovereignty of their native country; they did not allow it to be broken by the intervention of mercenaries, sanctions, financial and economic embargo, attempts at external isolation; defended the right of Cuba to its own model of development in accordance with national, and not imposed from outside values; made sure that the world takes into account the opinion of Cuba and respects its interests.”

Putin also spoke about supporting the sovereignty of Cuba later, at a personal meeting in the Kremlin. “Cuba takes the same position in relation to our country, in relation to Russia,” he noted with confidence. Diaz-Canel did not disappoint, stressing that Havana constantly condemns the sanctions against Russia and the “sources of the current conflict”: “So that people are not misled.”

The details of the interaction between Putin and his Cuban counterpart were not publicly discussed either during the opening of the Castro monument or in the Kremlin. However, the visit was preceded not only by parliamentary discussions, but also by a meeting between Deputy Prime Ministers of Russia and Cuba, Dmitry Chernyshenko and Ricardo Cabrisas, who spoke on November 18 about bilateral projects in the energy sector.

The topic of the talks was enhanced oil recovery at the Boca de Jaruco field: Zarubezhneft operates on the northern coast of Cuba. Enhanced oil recovery could reduce Cuba’s critical dependence on energy imports, Chernyshenko noted. On the same day, November 18, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development reported that Cuba was interested in the supply of Russian fertilizers, hydrocarbons and wheat.

For Russia, it is important that the Russian and Cuban points of view in international organizations coincide as much as possible, Viktor Kheifets, professor at the Faculty of International Relations at St Petersburg University, told Vedomosti. Cuba will certainly support Russia on a number of issues, in particular on the issue of sanctions, since it has itself been under a US blockade since 1960, Heifetz said.

At the same time, on the issue of the Ukrainian crisis, it is unlikely that Havana will come out with unconditional support for Moscow, like the DPRK, the expert notes. In his opinion, Cuba does not recognize the accession of new territories to Russia. This issue was not discussed publicly on November 22.

At the same time, at the UN General Assembly on October 13, during the voting for a resolution condemning Russia for this, Cuba abstained, Kheifets notes.

Cuba’s cautious position is due to the need to maneuver between Russia, which can potentially provide it with significant support, and the United States, which is slowly returning to Barack Obama’s course to restore relations, which was interrupted by Donald Trump, said Dmitry Rozental, deputy director of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Americans provided humanitarian aid to Havana to overcome the consequences of Hurricane Yen in October of this year. In early June, the US announced it was easing restrictions on educational and professional travel to Cuba, as well as restrictions on money transfers.

The significance of Cuba as a trading partner for Russia is not great, Kheyfets says, and Havana itself understands that it does not have a military significance, as in the days of the USSR. The exchange of goods like Cuban sugar and nickel for oil continues, but it is small. At the same time, Cuba has a large amount of civilian equipment of Soviet and partly Russian production, as well as infrastructure facilities built with the help of Moscow. “It is the contracts for maintaining this equipment and infrastructure in working order that are of interest to Russia,” the expert believes.

Russia is also helping Cuba to explore for oil and gas on the shelf, now it is extremely dependent on energy imports, says Kheifets. So far, there are no special results, but the partners do not lose hope, the expert notes. For Cuba, the decline in energy supplies from Venezuela, which is experiencing an economic crisis, is extremely painful.

In addition, Cuba has been discussing the issue of launching the work of the Russian payment system Mir since the summer, since sanctions are not terrible for local banks. This could help restore Russian tourist traffic to Cuba after the pandemic, Heifetz says. More active cooperation in the field of pharmaceuticals is also possible, since the country is quite active in this sector and its products are of high quality, Rosenthal said.