Moscow - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday that
Russia should restore Soviet-era alliances with Cuba, news agencies
reported.
'We need to rebuild position in Cuba and other countries,' Putin
said during a meeting with his deputy Igor Sechin on his return from
talks in Havana.
The head of Russia's federal security services Nikolai Patrushev
was also part of the delegation seeking to extend trade and military
cooperation.
Some of the country's top military brass, angry over the United
States' plans to install a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe,
suggested last month that Russia could send nuclear-capable bombers
to refuel and idle in Cuba in retaliation.
The Russian defence ministry then denied the report, but not
before scathing reactions from the US.
Russia's current move to strengthen relations with the Caribbean
island, just 150 kilometers off the US coast, is a throwback to the
Cold War-era power-plays that culminated in the Cuban missile crisis
of 1962 - the closest the two powers ever came to full-scale war.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia cut back on
economic and military aid to the communist island, which suffered
from the loss.
Then in 2006, Russia granted Cuba 355 million dollars to improve
its transport and energy infrastructure, while the island signed up
to buy Russian Tu-204 and Il-300 aircraft.
Back from three days of talks with Raul Castro - former Cuban
President Fidel Castro's brother - on increased cooperation, Sechin
brought his greeting back to Putin: 'He says to tell you, 'hello'.'
A political analyst and former official at Russia's ministry of
defence told news agency RIA-Novosti on Monday that Cuba and FSB
chief Patrushev likely discussed renewing a military presence in Cuba
as a response to US shield plans.
Moscow remains unconvinced of US insistence that the missile
shield poses no threat and is designed to counter 'rogue states' such
as Iran.
'It is not a secret that the West is creating a 'buffer zone'
around Russia, involving in the process countries in central Europe,
the Caucasus, the Baltic states and Ukraine,' military analyst Leonid
Ivashov was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.
'In response, we may expand our military presence abroad,
including in Cuba,' he said.
USA
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