Russian Navy ships sound their horns as they entered the port of Havana on a stop in the Caribbean, which the United States and Cuba have said does not pose a threat but is widely seen as a show of strength by Moscow amid tensions over the Ukraine war.
Small groups of fishermen and other curious people located along the promenade of the Malecón in Havana welcomed the imposing ships Under a light rain they passed near the Morro Castle, a colonial fortress about 400 years old, at the entrance to the Havana port.
The first ship to arrive was the oil tanker “Akademik Pashin“and then the rescue tug”Nikolai Chiker”, while a Russian navy frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine waited on the high seas.
The frigate and submarine, which are part of a four-ship Russian naval detachment, later approached the coast after conducting missile exercises in the Atlantic Ocean en route to Cuba, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday. yesterday.
Cuba said last week that The visit was a common practice for warships from friendly countries from Havana. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Cuban regime said that the ships They were not nuclear weapons carriersa point echoed by US officials.
“We have been closely monitoring the trajectories of the ships,” he told Reuters a US official on condition of anonymity.
“At no time have the ships or submarines posed a direct threat to the United States”he added.
Havana is located just 160 kilometers from Key West, Florida, where a United States Naval Air Station is located. The visit comes as the Biden administration reflects on how far it can go to help defend Ukraine against Russia.
“Visiting Russian warships are Putin’s (Vladimir) way of reminding Biden that Moscow can challenge Washington in its own sphere of influence.“, said William Leograndeprofessor at American University.
The scale also coincides with the Cuba’s worst economic crisis in decadeswith shortages ranging from food, medicine and fuel, in addition to blackouts and the dissatisfaction of its residents on the streets.
“That (…) has echoes of the Cold War, but unlike the first Cold War, Cubans are attracted to Moscow not by ideological affinity but by economic necessity“, he claimed.
History looms large in Cuba, especially when it comes to Russia and its predecessor the Soviet Union.
The Cuban missile crisis erupted in 1962, when the Soviet Union responded to the deployment of American missiles in Turkey by sending ballistic missiles to the Caribbean island, sparking a confrontation that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Moscow and Havana are once again strengthening their ties. Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the Russian president, Vladimir Putinfor the fourth time in May, when he attended a military parade in Moscow, where he said that Russia could always count on Cuba’s help.
In March, Russia delivered 90,000 metric tons of oil to Cuba to help alleviate shortages while pledging to cooperate with Havana on projects ranging from sugar production to infrastructure, renewable energy and tourism.
The ships of the Russian naval detachment will remain in Cuba until the 17th of this month.
(Reuters)
