Havana, June 17 (Sputnik).- The Russian fleet that arrived in Cuba last week said goodbye to Havana this Monday, after a five-day stay, after fulfilling an agenda that included meetings with authorities from the capital, visits to historical places and tours of the population to the Admiral Gorshkov frigate.
Along with the frigate Gorshkov, on June 12, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the oil tanker Akademik Pashin and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker arrived in the Cuban capital in a courtesy visit that has been very well received by the population of the island.
On Sunday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the interior of the Gorshkov frigate, which on Saturday had opened its doors to the public for four hours.
Covered with capes and umbrellas, nearly a thousand Cubans stood in a long line in the rain to visit the frigate.
«If Moscow does not believe in tears (reference to a 1979 Russian film), neither does Havana believe in rain, and here we are to visit the Russian ship, that military fortress that has reached Cuba to confirm that the seas of the world have no a single owner and that peace is achieved when all of us together are capable of defending ourselves,” a Havana resident told the Sputnik Agency who gave a military salute while holding his umbrella and identified himself as Juan Velázquez.
Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov. He said that the group of Russian ships entered the port of Havana as part of a broader international cooperation mission.
Visits by naval units from countries with which the Government of Cuba maintains relations of friendship and cooperation are common.
In the midst of the arrival of the Russian ships, the US Southern Command (Southcom) announced that the fast attack nuclear submarine Helena had docked at its Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.
Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio said that Havana does not approve these visits.
Also during the days that the Russian ships were in the island’s port, a Royal Canadian Navy patrol ship arrived for its first official visit since 2016.
The Cuban ambassador to Canada, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, announced last week that the HMCS Margaret Brooke would be in the port of Havana from June 14 to 17 in view of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations between both countries in 2025. ( Sputnik)
