A Russian aircraft maintenance company has taken the Cuban state airline to court over an unpaid multimillion-dollar debt, in an episode that illustrates how the relationship between Moscow and Havana has moved past the era of Soviet subsidies to operate under strictly commercial rules.
Ark Technic, based in Voronezh, has filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against Cubana de Aviación and the Cuban Aviation Corporation (CACSA) for approximately 541 million rubles, equivalent to about 6.2 million dollars, according to the agency RIA Novosti.
The Russian company is not only demanding the payment of that sum, but also requests the seizure of assets from both Cuban entities. The lawsuit was filed in court on August 3, and the preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 28.
Ark Technic is dedicated to "the repair and maintenance of aircraft, including spacecraft," according to the BIR-Analytics information service, and recorded revenues exceeding 550 million rubles in 2025. The amount it claims from Cuba is practically equivalent to almost an entire year of its revenue.
The origin of the litigation has documented contractual precedents. CACSA confirmed on its official site that it has signed two agreements with ARK-Technic aimed at the sustainability and restoration of the airworthiness of the Cubana de Aviación fleet.
These contracts between CACSA and the Russian company included the supply of spare parts in Cuba, the organization of a repair system for components, the presence of Russian technicians on the island, and the technical inspection of aircraft to determine necessary updates. The claim suggests that the Cuban regime failed to honor the payments resulting from these agreements.
The situation of Cubana de Aviación is critical: in February of this year, the airline was operating with only four planes —one ATR 42-500, two ATR 72-200s, and one Ilyushin Il-96-300— a minimal fleet that reflects decades of deterioration and lack of investment.
In June 2025, the Cuban regime publicly acknowledged that it had accumulated debts with multiple Russian companies and promised to settle them "when the economic situation improves", while negotiating the rescheduling of its sovereign debt with Moscow —about $277.2 million in intergovernmental credits— from the period 2023-2027 to 2028-2040.
The bilateral relationship has undergone profound changes. Russia no longer offers subsidies; it provides loans, demands payments, and when Cuba fails to comply, its companies turn to the courts.
At the same time, the Cuban regime has placed its strategic industries in Russian hands —energy, metallurgy, cement, nickel and cobalt mining, agri-food— in exchange for financing and investments announced in April totaling over 1 billion dollars.
Cuba offers land for lease and contracts for the exploitation of natural resources; Russia, capital, and political support.
The bilateral air sector is experiencing its own collapse. In February, the Russian airlines Rossiya and Nordwind suspended their regular flights to Cuba due to a critical shortage of kerosene on the island, leaving around 4,300 Russian tourists stranded who had to be repatriated on special flights.
Russian tourism, one of the main source markets for Cuba, dropped sharply in the following months. At the end of August, the Russian Minister of Transport stated that the resumption of flights depended on the normalization of fuel supply, without providing a specific date.
The demand from Ark Technic comes precisely in that context: a Cuban state airline with no ability to pay, a fleet in ruins, and a relationship with Russia that no longer forgives debts, but rather collects them in arbitration court.
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