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In a context marked by the accelerated deterioration of relations between Moscow and the West, the Russian government has publicly reacted to rumors about the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Cuba.
Although the Kremlin has not directly confirmed that possibility, it has not ruled it out either.
On Tuesday, August 5, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, referenced for the first time reports circulating in pro-Kremlin media and among Russian military analysts regarding the possibility of relocating nuclear missiles to the Caribbean, specifically to Cuba and Venezuela.
“As we understand it, we are talking about the private opinion of individual experts expressing a personal viewpoint”, stated Zakharova, in comments reported by the Russian state agency Interfax.
While the Kremlin spokesperson attempted to frame the speculation as individual opinions, they also did not explicitly deny that these options are being considered at the state level.
"The development of international military cooperation is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense", he added, in response to a direct question on the matter.
“In analyzing the possibilities of such links, we rely on the international obligations of the Russian Federation and the bilateral agreements with the interested countries,” he concluded on the subject, leaving more questions than answers.
Silence in Havana
So far, the Cuban government has not made any official statement regarding these rumors or about the explicit mention of the island as a possible destination for Russian missiles.
The silence of the Cuban government has been interpreted by some observers as a cautious stance in the face of an extremely delicate and potentially destabilizing situation.
Cuba, which was the epicenter of one of the largest nuclear crises in modern history in 1962, has so far refrained from making any statements about this new chapter of nuclear tensions between Russia and the United States.
Its current foreign policy maintains an official stance of non-alignment in direct military conflicts, despite its historical alliance with Moscow.
Why Cuba?
On the Monday prior to Zakharova's statement, Alexander Vorobyov, head of the Moscow Center for Strategic Studies, stated that the potential deployment of Russian missiles in Cuba would be a logical response to the recent positioning by the United States of precision-guided bombs on British territory.
According to Vorobyov, "Russia could move its missiles to Cuba," considering the island as "Moscow's preferred site for the deployment of intermediate-range and short-range missiles."
These statements heightened the alarms even further and reactivated parallels with the 1962 Missile Crisis, which nearly triggered a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The context of an escalation
Rumors have gained momentum amid a surge in nuclear tensions, fueled by statements from high-ranking U.S. and Russian officials.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of two American nuclear submarines to positions "closer to Russia."
In response, the government of Vladimir Putin announced the official withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a key agreement for global strategic stability since the Cold War.
This Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov was blunt.
“Russia no longer has restrictions in this regard; it is no longer considered limited. Therefore, it is deemed entitled to take appropriate measures if necessary,” he stated.
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a prior statement, justified the decision to withdraw from the INF treaty by stating that “the conditions for maintaining the moratorium had disappeared due to the actions of Western countries.”
In particular, Moscow accused the United States and its allies of accumulating "destabilizing missile capabilities that create a direct threat to the security" of the country in regions close to Russia.
Placement of Russian Missiles in Cuba: A Recurring Proposal
This is not the first time that the placement of missiles in Cuba has crossed the mind of Russian leaders.
In January of last year, Alexei Zhuravlev, the first vice president of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma, stated that his country should place nuclear weapons in Cuba, as well as in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
"As for our missiles closest to the United States, I, for example, have long supported supplying launchers and submarines to our friends Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua," Zhuravlev said on that occasion.
In statements reported by News.ru, the parliamentary leader of Putin's regime reacted to a revelation from The Telegraph, which claimed that Washington was likely to return its nuclear weapons to the United Kingdom.
Previously, in 2022, during the early months of the invasion of Ukraine, the then Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Serguei Riabkov, warned that he did not rule out a Russian military deployment in Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States increased.
The Cuban government has always remained silent about the statements made by its Russian allies in this regard.
Am I heading towards a new crisis?
The public reemergence of the possibility of installing nuclear weapons in Cuba—though still unconfirmed—rekindles fears of a new military confrontation between superpowers in the Western Hemisphere.
The mere mention of the Caribbean island as a strategic support point for Moscow is, in itself, a high-voltage geopolitical signal.
For many, it serves as a reminder that, in an increasingly multipolar and volatile world, military tensions can resurface in familiar scenarios, but under new conditions.
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