Ukraine, Russia, Cuba and the War

By Eloy Viera Cañive (El Toque)

HAVANA TIMES – The war has begun. Russia invaded the Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, 2022. Thus, a dispute foretold weeks ago became reality, having only been a war of narratives up until recently – beyond the conflict Ukrainians have had over the past eight years.

Despite air raids and tanks beginning to advance, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is also a war between two different visions of the world and ways of telling it. Announcing the beginning of hostile actions, Vladimir Putin at no point said that a war has begun – confirmed by the Cuban media -, but has always talked about a “special military operation”, which doesn’t seek to occupy the Ukraine, but to demilitarize and “denazify” this country, ironically.

Demilitarizing a country that has the right to have an army and “denazifying” a country where 43,000 people identify as Jewish and 200,000 are elegible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. “Denazifying” a country where the president-elect is Jewish and members of his family were victims of the Holocaust.

Ukraine has been at war since 2014. A war that has spread despite the Minsk agreements in 2014 and 2015. The Ukrainian Government’s confict with pro-Russian separatist forces in Donbas has resulted in the death of 14,000 citizens up until February 24th. Russia’s role has been essential since the beginning of this conflict. The Donetsk and Luhansk movements began after Euromaidan, a popular movement that forced Ukrainian president Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych to resign and flee the country. However, the conflict really began after the popular referendum and Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Before this, Putin had used the so-called “frozen conflicts” inherited or created after the USSR collapse, to intervene or support separatist forces in countries such as Moldova or Georgia.

The Cuban Government and the Putin Doctrine

You can’t criticize US imperialism and justify Russian imperialism. You can’t be an enemy of the Monroe Doctrine and embrace the Putin Doctrine.

Three days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Monday February 21, 2022), Vladimir Putin explained some of his beliefs that are deeply-rooted in Russian nationalism dating back to the Russian Empire. Putin made it very clear that Russia could be understood as all of the land where there are people with native Russian culture. He said that Ukraine – one of these regions – is a State that shouldn’t have the right to exist outside of Russia.

Putin also recognized the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk and declared that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia.” Meanwhile, he confirmed that Ukraine’s independence had been the result of mistakes committed by the Soviet Communist Party elite (especially by Lenin), who were also responsible for the USSR’s collapse. Putin has classified this fact as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe in the 20th century”, for a long time.

Putin has justified the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s expansion towards Eastern Europe, which is true. Many countries which were under the USSR’s influence in the past, such as Poland or the Baltic states, have been joining the Atlantic Alliance over the years. But those who say NATO don’t have the right to expand towards the Russian border – such as Cuban minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez, has – forget that these States (once members of the Warsaw Pact) joining NATO, is a result of their own sovereign decisions. Decisions that were justified at the time as the best defense mechanism to protect themselves from Russia’s forever dormant – and now confirmed – expansionist aspirations.

What can protect small States such as Estonia or Latvia, located on the Russian border and whose population are 40% Slav by origin, after Putin’s speech on February 21, 2022? Just belonging to NATO and the collective duty of all of its members to provide military assistance in the case of an attack stops Putin from wanting to expand Russian influence to these places where significant minorities exist, whom he considers his fellow countrymen.

Putin’s geopolitical view is imperialist in true Czarism-style. It’s as imperialist as many US administrations have been in different historic periods.

The Cuban Government and its acolytes’ position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is proof that anti-imperialism isn’t one of their guiding principles – despite the abundance of propaganda saying the exact opposite. The Cuban Government and anyone defending Putin don’t understand what principles are, they only understand true Machiavellian-style pragmatism. As the Florence master of philosopher once said: politics have no relation to morals.

The Cuban Government’s close ties to Russia are irrefutable. The relationship Diaz-Canel’s Government has with Putin is a sugar-coated and post-modern version of what Fidel Castro once had with the Soviet Union. A relationship where the principles they boasted about of international solidarity and altruism hold no weight, instead it’s the mutual benefit of knowing they have a common enemy. In Putin’s case, a world view could be summarized by what Aleksandr Dugin has called “nationalist populism”.

The new relationship between the Cuban and Russian Governments has been built by different sectors. The military sector has been one of the most important. Russia’s minister of Defense, Sergey Shoygu, visited Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela in 2015 and dealt with matters linked to the technical/military exchange between Russia and the three Latin American countries. Also, Miguel Diaz-Canel visited Russia in November 2018 and met with Putin. After his visit, Russia immediately announced that it would grant Cuba a credit of 38 million euros to buy Russian planes, helicopters and military equipment. In 2019, Cuban vice-president Ricardo Cabrisas – the main negotiator of Cuba’s foreign debt – met with Shoygu in Moscow, as part of these agreements, to talk about “bilateral cooperation efforts in pursuit of stability and security in the Caribbean.”

High-ranking Russian officials have made several visits to Cuba in recent years. Russian deputy prime minister, Yury Borisov, has visited Cuba at least three times since 2018. The last trip was in February 2022, just a few hours before Russia invaded Ukraine. During this trip, Borisov did a tour of Latin America, including another two countries that have been crucial in reinforcing its position in the continent: Venezuela and Nicaragua. It’s no coincidence that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are the only countries in Latin America today that have expressed their unconditional support for Putin and his invasion.

After deputy prime minister Borisov’s visit to Cuba (February 18, 2022), Cuban diplomat Rodriguez announced, on his Twitter account, his strong rejection of what he considered “propaganda and media hysteria triggered by the US Government against Russia.” Also a member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo, Rodriguez “strongly opposed NATO’s expansion towards the Russian border.”

After this statement came from Bruno Rodriguez – which wasn’t a coincidence either – a quid pro quo was established. On February 22, 2021, Russia’s State Duma – or, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia – ratified agreements signed with Cuba in August 2021, after Putin’s Government put them forward, which sought to renegotiate part of the debt between both States. These agreements ratified by the State Duma extend payment deadlines to 2027, for credits granted by Russia to Cuba between 2006-2019.

Russia granted 2.3 billion USD to Cuba in this period, and Cuba stopped repayments in early 2020. The grounds for the regulation passed by the Russian State Duma establishes that Cuba’s failure to make payments between 2020-2021 will need to be made between 2022-2027; this new repayment scheme will imply an additional instalment of 11 million USD for Cuba in interest.

The day the State Duma approved the debt restructuring agreement, Cuba responded with an official statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX). Expressing gratitude to Putin and the close ties between both Governments, the statement can be broken down into three key points:

    – The US and NATO are responsible for the situation in Ukraine, having manipulated the international community about the dangers of an “imminent mass invasion” by Russia.

    – Cuba has always warned about the danger of this kind of policy.

    – Russia has the right to defend itself.

Two days after this statement (February 24th), the “imminent mass invasion” happened, which – according to MINREX’s statement – the US and NATO used to manipulate the world. The Russian army advanced without the Ukrainians firing a single shot.

While the invasion of Ukraine began, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel reaffirmed what a pleasure it was to welcome and talk to Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which approved Cuba’s debt renegotiation with Russia. Volodin is an official with close ties to Putin’s United Russia Party and has even gone as far as saying that there is no Russia without Putin. His visit amidst a situation like the one unfolding in Eastern Europe is no coincidence, and definitely isn’t disinterested.

On top of that, the day Ukraine and the invasion of this country made headlines in the international press, Granma, the Cuban Communist Party’s main newspaper, came hot of the press highlighting the friendship between Cuba and Russia and both Governments’ desire for peace.

Further proof that the war in Ukraine is also a war of narratives and that the Cuban Government doesn’t believe in ethics or morality, such as anti-imperialism.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.