Russian navy fleet, including frigate, nuclear-powered sub, arrives in Cuba

Russian navy fleet, including frigate, nuclear-powered sub, arrives in Cuba

firing a 21 gun Salvo as it came into Havana Bay a Russian naval flotilla docked on the island for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on Route a Russian frig fired artillery in drills the Biden Administration said the deployment was notable but not dangerous we of course take it seriously but uh these exercises don’t pose a threat to the United States nonetheless it deployed three destroyers to track the Russian deployment some Cubans watching the ships pull in felt it was poignant 5 years ago us cruise ships docked in this Bay and American tourists pumped money into the Island’s economy they were banned by the Trump Administration which allowed the cruise liners to be sued for hundreds of millions of dollars for docking here it’s hard to imagine a more powerful image of how far us Cuban relations have been bulldozed over the Last 5 Years a Russian nuclear powered submarine docked right where us cruise liners no longer can analysts say hardened us sanctions and economic desperation are pushing Havana closer to Moscow this is something that Cuba had forgotten uh that connection and it has come back to that connection because there’s no other choice and there’s no other choice directly because of United States sanctions and what can only be called sustained economic Warfare against Cuba and desperate diseases require desperate remedies and the number of Russian tourists for the first three months of this year doubled compared to this time last year and 90,000 tons of Russian oil arrived this March following protests against food and power shortages in Santiago Cuba’s Second City meanwhile Cuba’s position on the war in Ukraine has transformed over the last two years from one that stressed the importance of respecting international law to one that is strongly pro- Russian both Nations Russia and Cuba are imposed with unjust sanctions that have the origin in the same enemy the Yankee Empire Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and potent sanctions are drawing new geopolitical fault lines and a rekindling friendships of old Ed Augustin alzer Havana let’s bring in Javier fah he’s a political anist specializing in Latin American Affairs he joins us now from London thank you for your time so Russia has sent warships to Cuba in the past and the two nations are long-standing allies so is there really anything out of the ordinary about this no no even the us as you reporter uh rightly said has said that this is not a threat for the security of United States this is not October 1962 when the Soviet the then Soviet Union and the US almost went to war because of the deployment of nuclear missiles by the Soviet Union in Cuba and it was only averted after the Soviet Union decided to withdraw that for as long as the US with do nuclear weapons from Turkey this is is a different matter this these Maneuvers have been happening regularly as your repor said rightly so Cuba has become more dependent on Russia because of the lack of uh Economic Development which in which you know the Cuba is actually suffering from because of the Embargo at the same time we mustn’t forget that Venezuela used to be the main supplier of oil for Cuba but because of the situation in Venezuela that stop happening and therefore Russia has taken place has taken that place in to support Cuban economy only this week the Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Pia was in Moscow met his counterpart Serge lvov and they talked about a support a mutal support for the development of the Cuban economy at the same time this is a geopolitical issue we mustn’t forget that the timing is very important because only at the end of May as you may remember the United States allowed Ukraine to use American weapons to fight uh the usan Russian Invaders so in this particular case Russia is saying look fine if you’re going to do that we are going to have maneu with Cuba on the other hand any attempts that the West has tried to take to get in order to to obtain some kind of support from Latin America for Ukraine has actually failed so in this respect Russia is taking advantage of the situation and is getting the relationship with Cuba even closer but the US has tried to cool down this situation this is not actually October 1962 this is not a threat for the United States and all they want to do is to make sure that uh these Maneuvers don’t go beyond some kind of like a fireworks instead of proper war game which would be extremely dangerous especially because of the Strategic position that Cuba has in relation to the United States and and has the United States pushed Cuba into this relationship or closer ties with Russia I mean why are relations still so fraught between the between Cuba and the us we know that Obama opened a door uh with with the two countries with that historic visit to Havana in 2016 the door of course closed under Trump but Biden has done nothing to change uh and open that relationship again because we have to see the internal politics of the US Trump depends any president any candidate depends heavily on the vote of Florida where many uh anti-ban or anti-ban revolution Cubans Cuban Americans leave uh don’t forget that some elections have been actually decided with the vot of Florida where as I said you know these Cuban disident live in this particular case Trump won the election partly because of the support from Florida and he adopted a very hostile attitude towards Cuba Biden is playing the same game they having elections in November he needs those votes in order to be able to build Trump so in that respect we have to see internal politics in the United States at the same time we have to understand that even though Obama opened up the doors and then visited Cuba and opened an embassy the Embargo was never lifted because there was never enough majority in congress senate and and and the low lower house to leave the Embargo the Embargo remains even after the openness that that Obama show with Cuba so in that respect Cuba hasn’t got a choice but to depend very much on Russia at the same time we must understand that uh Russia has been cultivating this kind of relations not only with Cuba but all the countries in the development world like South Africa for example don’t forget the Maneuvers that happened in February last year in South Africa the Indian Ocean so this is this is a geopolitical game that they are playing but there no threat in terms of security for the United States thank you for breaking that down for us Javier Farah political analyst specializing in Latin American Affairs thank you my pleasure make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from aler

Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, accompanied by a tug boat and a fuel ship, have arrived in Cuba for a five-day visit seen as a show of force by Moscow amid rising tension over its invasion of Ukraine.
Curious onlookers, fishermen and police gathered along the Malecon seafront boulevard in Havana to welcome the fleet as it entered the city’s harbour on Wednesday.
The four Russian vessels conducted “high-precision missile weapons” training in the Atlantic Ocean while on their way to Cuba. The submarine and frigate are equipped with Zircon hypersonic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx antiship missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defence said.
US officials say they are tracking the vessels, they also played down the deployment.

Al Jazeera’s Ed Augustin reports from Havana, Cuba.

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