“It Was All a Scam” A Cuban’s Tale of Deceit from Russia
By Ernesto Eimil and Natasha Vazquez (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES – In April 2025, the elTOQUE WhatsApp channel (1-786-403-8554) received a denunciation centering around the story of a group of Cubans in Russia. The person, who asked to remain anonymous, told us that they knew of several Cuban citizens in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg who had traveled there due to a scam and were being held against their will.
The person making the call gave us a contact number for one of the victims – a young Cuban from Guantanamo who we’ll call Lazaro to protect his identity. Initially, he couldn’t respond to our questions, because he was under Police detention and couldn’t use his cellphone. Other Cubans then managed to get together the 20,000 rubles (approximately US $240 dollars) the Russian authorities demanded to set him free – we don’t know whether this was bail, or a bribe.
After living in very vulnerable conditions in Cuba, Lazaro thought he had found a way out. A middle-aged Russian woman named Liuba, who claimed to be an attorney, offered him an opportunity: emigrate legally, obtain papers, work, and a better life. Other Cubans had recommended her, and he wrote to her. It was a good deal for him, he thought. She would pay for his flight to Moscow, and he only needed to repay her the money once he was on Russian soil. However, “it was all a lie.”
“She brought me here on a trick. She told me they were going to legalize my status, that they’d give me papers. But when I arrived, she took my passport away in the airport and didn’t return it to me until three months later, when I paid her for what she had spent on me.” This was in December 2024.
A short history
What happened to Lazaro isn’t the first or the only story of similar scams, that amount to a form of human trafficking. In the last few years, there’ve been hundreds of similar cases on Russian soil, with the same modus operandi. In many of them, the contractors aren’t Russians but Cubans, or people with close ties to someone from the island.
Pedro Luis Garcia, a Cuban lawyer who lives in Moscow, has had contact with dozens of victims. Since 2020, with the onset of the pandemic, a growing number of Cubans who were deceived have contacted him. These emigrants have found themselves in very vulnerable situation, or with serious legal problems, as the result of false promises of employment and legalization, like the ones Liuba uses to attract young Cubans.
“This is nothing new, we’re constantly seeing cases of similar scams,” Garcia states. The attorney warns that some people even post on social media their willingness to enter into these supposed agreements. Despite the warnings, the flow of victims continues.
Lazaro asserts that he paid 25,000 Cuban Pesos (around $100 USD at the time) to prepare the trip, and over 70,000 Rubles over US $875] once he was in Russia. Luiba, in addition to making him work for her, forced him to pay 7,500 rubles [US $94] for rent. “I only wanted to improve my lifestyle, but I lack more necessities here than in Cuba.”
When Lazaro arrived, he worked cleaning stores. If he missed any days of work, he received a “fine” that amounted to more than a day’s pay. “She paid me 1,500 rubles a day, but if I rested for one day, she fined me 4,500. She never assisted me with any legal paperwork. I spent three months without a passport, with no money, and in the end, she conned me and left me out on the pavement.”
When the foreigners arrive in Russia, the owner of the place where they stay is supposed to fill out a document for them called “registratcia”; in other words, register the address where the foreign citizens are living. It’s a mandatory document, but up until February 2025, the authorities didn’t pay it much attention. In 2024, the Russian laws changed, so that now, if you can’t show proof of such registration you risk detention and deportation. Contractors such as Liuba are now utilizing this document as yet another pressure tactic.
According to Lazaro, at least 16 other people were living crowded together in a house that Liuba rented. Some slept on the floor, others two to a bed. “She held us there under threat, saying that if we didn’t work for her, she’d call the Police. She had photos of our passports. Many are still with her, working and living in sub-human conditions,” he revealed.
Latent risks
Fear is constant. Living in Russia in an irregular immigration situation exposes them to the risk of detention and deportation, especially those who haven’t followed the “legalization” procedure that Putin decreed. To do this, a valid passport is indispensable.
In the case of women, they’re also at risk of gender violence and prostitution.
“I knew a girl who supposedly came to Russia to work cleaning a construction site. Then suddenly they wanted to make her go to night parties as a prostitute,” Pedro Garcia shared. “She didn’t agree, and escaped from there. Afterwards, she contacted me to see what she could do and to help her request new documents, including a new passport, because [the people she escaped from] were holding her old one.”
The Cuban lawyer insists that one option is to ask for aid from the Cuban consulate. “Obviously, it’s easy to see they’re being exploited. I know of other cases in which they’ve helped the Cuban victims to file the denunciations,” he affirms. It’s possible to file a complaint on your own, but it’s not always effective.
However, many people believe that going to the consulate could complicate their situation. In other cases, they simply don’t trust the staff there to respond. Lazaro says that he hasn’t contacted the Cuban Embassy in Moscow. “I only want to better my life here, pull together some money, and go back to Cuba.”
He assures that Liuba has contacts in the local police and acts with impunity. “She has power here, she’s got almost all of the police on her payroll,” he states. “She threatens us with that. She wanted to ‘circulate’ me [issue a search warrant] for having left the house.”
Many Cubans came to Russia as part of a wave of emigration that has increased in the last few years, especially since the worsening of the economic and social crisis on the island. The facility of being exempt from a visa for the first 90 days, made Russia a more a accessible option, although not necessarily a safe or stable one. Following their invasion of Ukraine, and given the impossibility of moving on to other destinations, such as Europe or Latin America, a growing number of Cubans have ended up stranded in cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, without any clear options for legalization or integration.
This group of conned Cubans includes both men and women. We were given access to a WhatsApp message in which Lazaro – now out of Liuba’s house – confronts her with her abuses. “You’re an ungrateful people,” Liuba responds. “You should be living in Cuba, and not in civilization.”
According to Lazaro’s testimony, the Russian woman doesn’t need to watch over them constantly. The Cubans apparently have freedom of movement while they’re in the house, or on the jobs that Liuba orders them to do. However, they’re isolated, in a country that’s hostile to immigrants, and they don’t speak the language. They don’t have anyone to ask for help – they themselves are their only network for assistance.
“We try to help each other. But those who stayed continue being exploited,” the youth comments.
In the current context, marked by the crisis in Cuba, and given the growing uncertainty that the Cuban emigrants face in Russia, everything indicates that the story of Lazaro and his companions won’t be the last.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.