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Putin in Cuba — close but no cigar


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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

December 20, 2000

UNITED NATIONS — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cuba to rekindle the old relationship but as importantly to ask Comrade Fidel to pay the piper for past decades of Soviet largesse. Thus while the Putin visit was timed to show a more assertive Russian foreign policy, especially on the eve of a more pro-active Administration in Washington, somehow I don't feel Putin and Castro really hit it off too well.

During the Cold War, Cuba evolved into the classic Soviet client state; with this status came a financial responsibility for the Kremlin to underwrite many aspects of Castro's tropical totalitarianism in exchange for bases, proxy troops, and of course political influence. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the new Russian government rightly viewed Cuba as an expensive vestige of a misguided Marxist ideology and a costly one at that--Cuba's Soviet-era debt is estimated at $20 billion.

Certainly the first visit by a Russian leader in the post-Soviet era was an event in Old Havana; Castro's political cachet has not exactly been on the upswing. For Putin, visiting Cuba and later Canada was a clever political maneuver to outflank American neighbors and raise the image of Russia as a global player. Thus Putin's visit was less a stroll down any ideological memory lane than a ploy to showcase a grander role in foreign policy.

Vladmir Putin was of course accompanied by his Foreign Minsiter Igor Ivanov, but more interestingly by Defense Minster Igor Sergeev. Putin played his classically cool and calculated polemical chess game. He opined "Unfortunaltey in recent years relations with Cuba have been characterized by political and economic stagnation." He stressed his visit would reactivate political dialogue, paving the way for economic cooperation. Naturally Putin criticized the American economic embargo of Cuba.

The Cuban communist newspaper Gramna did not wax eloquently over Putin's statements but naturally echoed Castro's anti-globalization themes, more or less shared by Putin. Moreover the cash-strapped Russians are willing to forgive seventy percent of the $20 billion Soviet era debt; they will be lucky to get thirty cents on the dollar given the pedigree of the debtor. Nonetheless, Russia knows that its old comrades in Cuba are not exactly the wave of the future.

Significantly three points emerged from the Cuba/ Russia Summit. Joint opposition to American theater missile defenses, the plan to shield U.S. skies from missiles fired by rogue states such as Iran and Libya. Moscow argues that the defense plan counters the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Putin later pressed his case in Canada. Opposing the U.S. anti-missile defenses remains a key Russian policy objective.

News that the troubled Russian/Cuban Juragua nuclear power plant would be shut down was better. While the Soviets pumped millions into this facility started in 1983, construction was halted in 1992. The twin 440 megawatt reactors would have boosted Cuba's blackout-prone power grid but more importantly raised environmental and safety concerns not just for the island but the nearby Florida Straits.

Though the design was not based on the notorious graphite reactor used at Chernobyl, site of the nuclear tragedy in Ukraine, the danger loomed that any accident would risk weather patterns bringing a cloud of radiation over south Florida.

The third issue concerns the electronic eavesdropping site at Lourdes. Known as the Electronic Operation Center, Castro brought Putin (an ex-KGB man) and Marshall Sergeev to the facility which in the words of Granma, "the base has been functioning for some time and does so with international standards, (whose, the old KGB's?) Putin noted going on to say that it's an information center servicing Russia's defense system, and to an extent Cuba's as well, and as it is functioning well, both countries have agreed to maintain it." Lourdes remains an important communications intercept site covering the southern U.S.

Putin's nationalist rule in Russia is torn between a totalitarian communist past, and a still-chaotic present, and an uncertain future. Foreign posturing beyond trying to revive the power of the Soviet era, aims to probe and to gauge American reactions on the eve of the Bush Administration. While Moscow will hopefully continue to erase the mendacious misrule of the Soviet era, it shall likewise try to reestablish its standing as a major global player.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

December 20, 2000


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