APP GRATIS

The Russian Government describes the return of its military bases to Cuba as "pure fiction"

The Russian Foreign Ministry denies that it will install more military bases on Cuban territory.

Militar ruso durante una maniobra militar © Sputnik / Anatoly Medved
Russian soldier during a military maneuver Photo © Sputnik / Anatoly Medved

This article is from 5 years ago

The Russian Government described as "pure fiction" the recent information that Moscow could reopen its former military base in Cuba in the face of the danger that the United States, which is threatening to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), to place its missiles on European territory.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, as reported Sputnik News, rejected that Russia is going to install more military bases in Cuban territory or that it is going to launch an intelligence center in Lourdes.

"We are not commenting on something that is pure fiction," said the director of the Latin American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexandr Schetinin.

The aforementioned media pointed out that cooperation in the military field was one of the topics that Miguel Díaz-Canel and Vladimir Putin addressed during the meeting they held in the Kremlin on November 2.

In October the Kommersant newspaper already detailed that The Cuban government would receive a Russian loan of 50 million dollars that would allow it to buy all types of weapons and military material from Moscow.

This loan is part of a cooperation program that will extend until 2020.

The last time Russia granted a credit to the Island for the purchase of defensive material was in 2009, and the agreement at that time was renewed twice: in 2010 and 2011. Four years later, Havana requested support from Russia to protect its coasts and, in 2016, it was negotiated to repair the Soviet-made helicopters that the Caribbean nation has.

The INF, signed by Washington and Moscow in 1987, eliminated the short and medium range nuclear and conventional missiles that both countries had in the old continent.

However, on October 20, the US administration spoke of abandoning this agreement due to alleged violations by Russia.

National security advisor John Bolton also expressed concern about the aid that Moscow is providing to the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

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Jose Nacher

CiberCuba journalist. Graduate in Journalism from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University of Valencia, Spain. Editor at Siglo XXI, Agencia EFE, Las Provincias y El Mundo.


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