means of Russia confirmed the arrival on Monday to Havana of the Admiral Gorshkov frigatecapable of carrying Zircon hypersonic missiles, something that a US political scientist and anti-embargo lobbyist considered as the closing of any possible relief of Washington’s sanctions against the island’s regime.
In statements to the official Russian agency TASS, John Kavulichpresident of the Cuba-US Economic and Commercial Council, which seeks to increase business with Cuba, recognized that the deployment in the island’s capital of four ships of the Russian Navy, including Goshkov and the Kazan nuclear submarine , “it will be the final nail in the coffin from a political point of view in relation to any positive and substantive changes expected in the course of the Biden Administration towards the Republic of Cuba.”
The businessman recalled that at the end of May, Washington announced the possibility of Cuban non-state companies operating bank accounts in the United States.
But, in his opinion, “it is likely that the Administration could postpone again” the lifting of these restrictions if the entry of Russian ships had been announced a few weeks earlier.
The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba reported last week that the group of Russian Navy ships would arrive in Cuba on an official visit on June 12, to remain in Havana until the 17th of the same month. The official note stated that These ships would not carry nuclear weapons, which has not been confirmed by Moscow.
In addition to the Admiral Gorshkov frigate and the Kazan nuclear submarine, the tanker Akademik Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker will be deployed.
John Kirby, Strategic Communications Coordinator for the White House National Security Council, said: The United States is monitoring the situation surrounding the visit of Russian Navy ships to the port of Havanabut does not see it as a serious threat to national security.
At the same time, the Cuban-American senator Marco Rubio said that Havana should face the consequences from the US Administration if Russian ships enter port.
For its part, the Russian press emphasized that both the Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan are part of the Northern Fleet. The middle SnowFor example, he stated that “The strategic chess game between Russia and the United States has entered a new and tense phase”since now “the carriers of Russian hypersonic weapons will be in the vicinity of the American coast.”
Regarding the combat capability of the Kazan submarine, the report indicated that “although its main armament is Kalibr cruise missiles, experts confirm its ability to also carry Zircon missiles. Thus, in the near future, An unprecedented concentration of Russian high-tech weapons will be in Cuba, just 180 kilometers from the North American state of Floridaby order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.”
According to Snowthe Zircon hypersonic missiles, “capable of reaching speeds of up to 11,000 kilometers per hour, are of particular concern to US military analysts. At this speed, the flight time of the missile from Cuba to the nearest US strategic facilities is calculated in secondsmaking traditional missile defense systems not only ineffective, but useless.”
“The historical context adds drama to the situation. Many draw parallels with the Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world was on the brink of nuclear war due to the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba. With the appearance of Zircon off the coast of the Island, some experts speak of a new round of confrontation, technologically more complex and potentially more dangerous. Now we have to see if the president of the United States, Joe Biden, will survive such humiliation, because he did not know how to avoid what his predecessor did not allow,” the article emphasized.
Last week, the Cuba Siglo 21 ideas laboratory warned that its own sources assured it that The Havana regime “has asked Putin for a Russian nuclear military presence this summer” to shore up the probable increase in repressioninevitable given the worsening of the crisis and the social outbreak that may occur.
Referring to the arrival of the Russian combat group in the Cuban capital, the Madrid-based project noted that this deployment seeks to send “the message to the people of the Island (more than to Washington) that the United States will not dare to come in your help if Cuban blood is spilled in the streets of cities and towns. “The Russian ships will be there to make possible an unpunished Tiananmen in Cuba.”
“The Cuban oligarchy knows that this year, especially during the summer, it may face large-scale social explosions that generate serious ungovernability on the island. In these circumstances, it is militarizing the island’s institutions (relying on the little-studied Title of the 2019 Constitution)”, said Cuba Siglo 21 in a text that describes the current situation of terminal asphyxiation that the regime is experiencing.
“Courtesy of Putin, the deployment of national repressive forces willing to kill will be carried out in the presence of a foreign, interfering military force, represented – for now – by three ships and a nuclear submarine. Her presence only serves to give Castro and Maduro a pat on the back (the Venezuelan elections are on July 28).”
“If Washington wants to avoid a massacre in Cuba, the way is not to finance MSMEs, but to send an urgent, loud and clear message to Havana, that 90 miles from the United States an action like Tiananmen would have serious consequences,” he concluded. the declaration.
