Putin to Bailout Cuba, What a Delicacy!
HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban government seems to have found the oxygen it needed in the face of the country’s economic suffocation and the growing discontent of the people. Putin’s Russia agreed to do the bailout, but not free of cost.
Since March 2023, there has been a coming and going of high-ranking officials between Havana and Moscow, including the Vice President of the Russian Government, Dmitri Chernyshenko. After the last meeting of the Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Cooperation Commission, the new agreements (at least a part) became known.
For the island, where everything is lacking (fuel, food, medicines) there will be businesses and investments from fifty Russian companies and a dozen agreements in the construction, digitization, banking, sugar production, transport and tourism sectors.
For Russia, in addition to a political ally (which ae scarce after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the increasing sanctions of the West), Cuba is a door to other alliances in Latin America while receiving preferential treatment that includes the use of Cuban lands for a period of 30 years.
It is not surprising that this week’s memes augur the return of Russian language courses on the University for All program, and show the ruble competing with the euro and the dollar for a space on the Cuban streets.
The rest of the attention this week on social networks was captured by the Buena Fe controversy. The duo, on tour in Spain, had at least two confrontations with the Cuban exiles and several of their presentations were cancelled.
While the Government in Havana, including Díaz-Canel, have put the media at their disposal to denounce the “fascist attacks” against the members of Buena Fe, part of the Cubans defend the boycott as a legitimate form of protest. Israel Rojas, leader of the group, has justified on several occasions the repression unleashed by the Cuban regime. In recent days, he said he did not know who the political prisoners in Cuba were.
Sally G, Cuba’s relationship with Russia is indicative of failure to comprehend the duplicity of both? It was Raul Castro Ruz, who in April 1953, visited the then USSR and established the relationship with the KGB. Yes, that is the same Raul Castro Ruz, who sitting in supposed retirement in the comfort of Siboney, continues to pull the strings of his communist puppet Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez!
That cozy relationship to which Sally G. refers long precedes the US embargo introduced in 1960 which she propounds as the reason which “forced” Cuba into its relationship with Russia.
Sally G. apparently knows naught of the KGB guidance provided to the Castros by Nicholai S. Leonov (coincidentally Vladamir Putin’s boss) which commenced in 1953, then continued in Mexico City in 1957, then in Havana in 1959.
But she ought to also know the assessment of Putin, by the KGB itself, in rejecting his application, when he applied for promotion above the rank of Colonel. It was:
“He (Putin) has a lowered sense of danger.”
If Sally G. doubts the influence of Leonov, she ought to note that the biography of Raul Castro Ruz was written by none other! Raul even provided previously unknown family photographs for the book.
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USA with its increasing anti Cuban policies has now pushed Cuba into Moscow’s corner even more. .. no big surprise. Remember the days of Kennedy, the Cuban missile crisis, and how it all came to be…. Cuba then was initially forced to ally with Moscow thanks to US policies then.
Cuba getting rescued by Russia is like being in your dinghy in the open sea and getting rescued by the Titanic. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers! So why would Cuba allow the circulation of the ruble on Cuban streets you ask? It’s called money laundering! Criminal and sanctioned Russian oligarchs can dump their near worthless rubles in exchange for the even more worthless Cuban peso and then exchange those pesos for US dollars. So who wins? The Cuban cartels that smuggle US dollars into the country. The Castros receive these rubles and buy Russian goods previously inaccessible. Who loses? The Cuban people. Why? The more rubles in circulation in Cuba, the higher the exchange between CUP and the US dollar. It’s nearly 200 CUP to the dollar now. Stay tuned for 225+ in the near future.