"Cuba - my love"

Cuba give us our bread

Cuba take your sugar

We were gored by the bearded Fidel,

Cuba go to...

(Folk version of the song “Cuba is my love”)

Chairman of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and co-chairman of the Russian-Cuban intergovernmental commission Igor Sechin, who rarely leave their native birch trees and oil and gas fields unattended, held an operational event, making a foray to the “island of freedom.” Cuba, as you know, is located only 90 miles from the Kremlin’s sworn “partner”, with whom Moscow, based on the latest statement of an anonymous Russian diplomat, may not communicate, since it already has someone to talk to.

It seems that Nikolai Patrushev and Igor Sechin “went across three seas” to clearly prove to Washington the Kremlin’s transition from words to demonstrative gestures. As the press service of the Russian Security Council reported: “During Raul Castro’s conversation with Patrushev and Sechin, it was noted that the leadership of Russia and Cuba intend to carry out consistent work to restore traditional ties in all areas of cooperation, their comprehensive expansion and deepening.”

The Knights of Cloak and Dagger were sent to Cuba by Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev on an important and “secret” mission - to refresh the memory of forgetful US citizens about the details of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. I am sure that this was done in response to the deployment of missile defense in Europe.

This operation began not from the moment Patrushev and Sechin boarded the plane, but much earlier. Having thought it through, the Kremlin inspired the ever-living Fidel Castro, who on July 25 of this year publicly hinted at the possibility of building a base on the island for refueling Russian nuclear bombers. And only after this, the fighters of the invisible front set off to scare the “apologists” of a unipolar world.

Let me remind you that Russia already had bases in Cuba. True, almost six years ago, Vladimir Putin, to the extreme disappointment of his Cuban “friends,” decided to remove the last of them. In fact, it was a radar installation for wiretapping communications and monitoring the movements of the US Army, created in 1964. It was located a little over 20 kilometers from Havana, and was serviced by about a thousand Russian specialists. Congress even voted in 2000 to limit financial aid to Russia unless Moscow removed its radar installation from Cuba. And later the US administration welcomed the closure of this base, which it considered an espionage center. The Chief of the Russian General Staff, General Anatoly Kvashnin, commenting on Putin’s decision at the time, said: “We pay Cuba $200 million a year for the lease (of the base). With this amount we can launch 20 military satellites into space.” I don’t know whether Kvashnin’s dreams came true, but those were 2000 and 2002, when the price of oil on average did not exceed an insignificant for the Kremlin 40 dollars per barrel, and Washington did not agree with the Czechs and Poles on the deployment of a missile defense system on their territory. True, this system must repel a possible missile attack from Iran, to which Russia and North Korea supply air defense systems and ballistic missile production technologies.

Where the refueled Russian nuclear bombers will fly - if, of course, they reach Cuba unharmed and then can take off again - is not difficult to understand.

However, I'm almost sure that it won't come to that. Firstly, because the Kremlin already abandoned the gullible Cuban leadership six years ago, and therefore it is unlikely to decide to again become a hostage to Moscow’s policies. Secondly, it is obvious that Russian leaders are trying to gain arguments for future disputes with their “partners” who have not matured enough to become friends, sending a more than clear signal to the new White House administration.

Thirdly, it is one thing to sell air defense systems to Iran, weapons to Syria and Venezuela, located at a respectful distance from the United States, and quite another to plan the construction of a base for nuclear bombers in close proximity to Florida.

Fourthly, the idea that these steps could cause an adequate reaction from the United States and EU countries and lead to the start of a new arms race, the result of which once contributed to the collapse of the USSR, most likely still hovers somewhere in the Kremlin offices.

And finally, fifthly, with negotiations about love with Cuba, the Kremlin once again confirmed the well-known saying: “Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.” Nothing more.