Putin says US-Cuba Rapprochement is No Threat to Russia
Felipe Pagliery (Progreso Weekly)
HAVANA TIMES — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that he evaluates the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States as a positive step and welcomes the diplomatic thaw between the two countries.
The Russian president spoke on the subject during a meeting with the heads of 12 foreign news agencies at the presidential library in St. Petersburg. The executives were there at the invitation of the 12th International Economic Forum taking place in that city.
Part of the meeting was closed to the official Russian press, so the reports that emerged from it came from participants who paraphrased Putin’s actual words.
According to those reports, Putin said that he supported Cuba opening to the world and welcomed the new relationship between Havana and Washington, but added that such a convergence would not lead to a decrease in Russian influence in Cuba.
The Cuban people have suffered greatly from the economic embargo imposed by the United States since 1962, noted Putin saying a lifting of the embargo would have a positive effect on the island and the rest of Latin America, a region that he described as a priority for Russia.
Moscow, he said, intends to seek enhanced cooperation with the hemisphere. “We are for the development of the region,” one of the participants quoted him in a Tweet as saying.
Putin declined to comment on the situation in Venezuela, saying that it is not Russia’s custom to discuss the domestic policies of other countries.
as someone who was born n raised under castros cuba you dont speak for me clarke. I doupt with a name like yours you even are cuban.
Those Cubans whom you claim “came here to work y basta.” can leave anytime and yet they stay. Imagine that? By the way, do you know how you can identify a “revolutionario” in Cuba? …neither does anyone else.
Moses, I went to Cuba 2xs a year 10 years before you had the idea to go there. I meet many Cubans here in the US who like to engage w/ me b/c I speak Spanish and know Cuba. I know many Cubans who came here that DO see the US as a monster. They came here to work y basta. I have young in laws in Holguin who wear a backwards baseball cap, listen to regaton and have lots of complaints about the status quo in Cuba. Nonetheless, they consider themselves revolucionario, and are by know means in favor of the US or a return to capitalism.
Your constant sniping at each other goes beyond childish to foolish. But I have to jump in here. “They younger generation will never forget…” The younger generation of Cuba (or at least Camaguey where I’m retiring to) embraces all things culturally North American. They could care less about polispeak, all they want is a little more for themselves, and not to be told what to or think anymore. All they want is just a little more.
You’re an interesting guy. What I KNOW is what I see and hear with my own eyes. Cubans, especially young Cubans, consume US culture as fast as we can pump it out. Cuban youth are not imitating the music or fashion of Moscow. They are not dancing to Chinese music. Cuban kids are absorbing all things American. By the way, the US did not bring down that Cubana flight. At worst, it is believed that Cuban exiles did. The five Cuban spies were convicted in open court of crimes evidenced by fellow Cubans involved in their spy network. There was never any doubt of their guilt. You obviously don’t know any Cubans. Clearly, you don’t know any of the tens of thousands who survived crossing the Florida straits to escape Castro tyranny. They didn’t see the US as a monster. Neither do you. If you really meant what you write, you would move to Cuba. But you know that your opportunities here, even given your assumed lack of education, is better than your choices under your professed Cuban idols.
Moses, you are having one of your nightmares again. Only the Castro’s can rule Cuba? The younger generation will never forget the atrocities inflicted by the United States. They are fully aware of the monster the US is and will watch their every move; for the past five years the UN has voted to lift the embargob but the big bully has refused to obey the World’s Organization. In 2003, it defied the UN and invaded Iraq, losing so many innocent lives so that the Halburtons could realize huge profits. Against world opinion, it has maintained an illegal embargo on Cuba and the people of Cuba are going to forget how the great America tried to starve them out, tried on several occasions to assassinate their leaders, bombed their Cubana airline in 1976, killing their young victorious fencing team, plotting to overthrow their Revolution and, unjustly, unfairly imprisoned the Cuban Five for periods of 16 years, when, all that they did was to infiltrate terrorists organizations on American soil who were plotting to create havoc on their country? Do you believe, Moses, that the sacrifices made by these Cuban Five would so easily be forgotten because the Americans can now travel to the island? Think again Moses, Think again???????????
Of course Putin would say that. But he knows that one day, the Castros will die and and as relations warm with the US, Cuba will undoubtedly lean towards Washington and away from Moscow.