Sergei Shoigu announces Moscow’s intention to increase cooperation in security, special services and police departments
EFE (via 14ymedio), Moscow, 10 September 2024 — Russia plans to grant new lines of credit to Cuba to help Havana “overcome the serious consequences of the US blockade*,” said the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, on Tuesday.
“Russia will take additional measures to support Havana; in particular, with the granting of new lines of credit,” Shoigu said during a meeting with Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez in St. Petersburg.
Shoigú, former Russian Minister of Defense, added that Cuba is one of Russia’s closest allies in Latin America, and relations between the two countries have survived “the test of time.”
“We are willing to increase cooperation within the framework of security councils, special services and police departments. We are paying particular attention to commercial, economic and investment cooperation,” he emphasized.
He also trusted that, with the help of Russia, Havana will overcome the “serious” consequences of the “economic blockade” imposed by the United States.
“We are paying particular attention to commercial, economic and investment cooperation”
Last June, a detachment of the Russian Navy arrived on the Island with a modern frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine, which generated great expectation inside and outside the country.
Political, military and economic relations between Moscow and Havana have deepened qualitatively in recent years.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was in Moscow at the beginning of May, his second official visit in less than two years.
Subsequently, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas made trips to the Slavic country.
In the economic plan between the two countries, initiatives stand out, ranging from Russian donations to advisory missions on reforms, to the opening of a line of credit for the Island to buy wheat, oil and fertilizers in Russia.
The trips of senior military officials are also frequent, but absolutely opaque.
Translated by Regina Anavy
Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
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