The support of the Cuban regime for Putin: When sovereignty stops being the argument

Putin's invasion of Ukraine It puts the Havana regime in an even more complex and adverse scenario.Beyond the criminal implications of resorting to war, Vladimir Putin's imperialist euphoriaIt is the violent reaction of a power whose interests are contrary to democracy and freedom.

The distancing ofUkraine of the Russian orbit and its approach to Europe has been a complex process. Faced with the historical, sentimental and colonialist demands ofRussia, Europe has offered the results of free companies established on the basis of Law. Faced with the gas stick and the golden embrace of priests and oligarchs; the investments of tempered capitalism of old empires accommodated in the liberal social order.

Between one influence and another, the Ukrainians chose to try their luck with the European model; to feel free to undertake, to express oneself, to organize and act within the framework of a civilized political order. The Ukrainians saw what other Eastern Europeans did when they decided to be part of theEuropean Union, an opportunity to build prosperous democracies, with different rules of the game than those of relations with the abusive neighbor.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was voted for by 73% of the voters who went to the second round of the 2019 elections. Kremlin propaganda accuses him of being a puppet of the West surrounded by fascist soldiers who threaten the security of Russians and pro-Russians by wanting weapons and military bases. NATO.

But the truth is that sinceBelavezha Treaty In 1991, Ukraine embarked on the path towards full sovereignty as a nation and its citizens saw in Europe a more attractive economic and social model than the repressive state capitalism of Russia; and in its institutions, a more profitable and reliable partner than the Kremlin's violent blandishments.

A path that led Ukraine to sign theBudapest Memorandum, thanks to which it gave Russia its nuclear arsenal (the third largest at the time), in exchange for security guarantees against threats or the use of force against its territorial integrity or political independence. Now we see what Putin did with the Memorandum.

The decantation of the will of the Ukrainian people to be sovereign and free of ties with Russia has cost its own. The possibility of achieving it in peace, even more so, as we are seeing.

The prodigal son of the Soviet Union, the little Tsar-Putin, the Czech pioneer who cried blood in front of theProtocolo de Alma-Ata and he swore to recover that vital space of the Slavs that, in communist times of the empire, extended to the limits today full of “fascists”: Marshal Volodia, the posh judoka,the boss of all bosses of Russian state capitalism has brought the war to Kievan Rus.

The chilling scenario set up by Putin in Europe and by extension in the world, once again violating international law and the sovereignty of Ukraine, and imposing his will through war, leaves crystal clear the truth that Western democracies have been clarifying for some time in bags of oil and gas.

Putin has undoubtedly gotten here following astrategy. Since its arrival at the Kremlin, Russia began to function with the protocol of its golden halls, under its “vertical of power” and surrendered to the new strong man who returned to it that image of predestination that, tied to orthodox imagery, also resides in its culture. Deeply spiritual without a doubt, although not as liberating and fruitful as the creed of the universality of human rights.

Putin’s social contract, at best, can be seen as a “managed democracy,” sovereign and illiberal. In its dialogue with the West, Russia projects itself as a promoter of autocracy or “inverted totalitarianism.” For years, the economic interests of those who should promote democracy and human rights displaced these to the level of theory, ignoring that their symbolic power is vital and strategic for peace and prosperity, convinced that ultra-liberalism was the way forward. faster to integrate Russia into the global maelstrom.

Now it's time to dance with the ugliest one; sooner or later it always comes. It is of little use to regret the mistakes made, the consumerist and complicit frivolity, the Lilliputian arrogance of having torn down the Wall and leaving the work to “the invisible hand.” Now the world has seen how far Putin is willing to go in his delusion of Russia as an empire, in his historicist revanchism and in his hatred of the least bad of the political systems, as Winston said.

The war unleashed by Russia on the European continent is the resource of those who have no arguments to counteract the influence of ideas that promote democratic culture and human rights. Putin's doctrine seeks to cut off the Westernizing influence on the peoples of the Slavic core. If Belarus or Ukraine democratized and progressed, the nationalist fallacy of the “particularities” of the Slavic people that distance them from the West would fall, and that would be precisely the greatest threat to Putin, not the bases of NATO.

Violence, as a lack of moral and rational arguments, is also what characterizes the repression of activists and civil society in Cuba. This is the correlate of Moscow's own dictatorial impotence. Both satrapies have to resort to force to win, but they are less and less convincing.

Havana's support for Moscow is despicable and pathetic. And dangerous. But it is a logical alliance; They are two actors who monopolize power, but with less authority every day; and with a common enemy: democracy and freedom. They also share the same terror: losing power. That's whyDiaz-Canel aligns with Maduro and Kim Jong-un.For that reason and because they have just deferred the debt until 2027.

Putin's reckless bet places Díaz-Canel to jump without a net into the Russian circus. The exit from the forum that the Havana regime intends makes it even more evident. Misha, salsero of peace and haruspex of stone, allowed himself to be embraced by Volodya, a more powerful bear, who wears a fang of Stalin set in the fob of Nicholas II. But Putin, for better than better, has a better chance of remaining as Russian leader until 2036.

Although the gangster idyll that they had was known, the photo now leaves Díaz-Canel kissing Putin's bloody and colonialist hand in the retina of the international community. The tragedy of Cuba's captured sovereignty, in the power of a so-called revolutionary mafia, has reached such extremes that it further highlights the need for change and the construction of a new framework of coexistence that recognizes the diversity of voices on the island.

The freedom of Cubans must be in the foreground before those shameful images of surrender of themujik of Placetas, putting Cuba on a platter to Russian imperialism. Putin's invasion of Ukraine leaves Díaz-Canel in the dark before Europe, the United States and the Cubans themselves.