14ymedio, Madrid, 28 February 2024 — Boris Titov, head of the Russia-Cuba Business Council and one of the Kremlin’s strong men, will return to the Island this Thursday, this time, for a considerable time for an official trip of this type: until March 7, a whole week. This is Moscow’s third high-level visit in ten days. On February 19, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Havana and met with President Miguel Díaz-Canel. A week later, so did Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, who met with Raúl Castro.
This time, Titov, according to the brief note published this Thursday by Prensa Latina, based on a cable from the Russian agency Sputnik, will make a “business visit” to “address different aspects of bilateral relations.” In the meetings scheduled on the agenda, the official agency continues, “the perspectives of business cooperation between the two countries will be examined.”
Last November, Moscow and Havana signed a trade and economic cooperation plan to run until 2030 that plans to promote the growth of bilateral trade and increased investments.
Titov, according to the brief note published this Thursday by Prensa Latina, will carry out a “business visit” to “address different aspects of bilateral relations”
Since last year, in addition to two visits by Chancellor Lavrov and the representative of Russian businessmen Boris Titov, the president of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin has traveled to Cuba, as have presidential advisor Maxim Oreshkin and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Russia’s mistrust towards Cuba in recent decades because of the non-payment of its debts changed completely following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A few days before, Moscow announced an extension of payments on Russian debts granted to Havana until 2027.
Since the war began, bilateral meetings have been taking place that specified symbiotic needs: that of Russia to have allies on the planet, after the majority rejection of its actions in Ukraine, and that of Cuba to try to breathe life into its devastated economy.
In addition, the Russian Army recruits volunteers on the Island to fight on Ukrainian territory. Last October, the Cuban regime detained 17 people for belonging to a “human trafficking network”, thus trying to disassociate itself from the recruitment of nationals to fight on the Russian side in the war in Ukraine.
A group of hackers has been leaking, through the InformNapalm page, the data of more than 250 Cuban combatants in Ukraine, who supposedly received salaries exceeding $2,000 and all kinds of advantages for the soldier and his family members.
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