Putin to wind up formal Cuba talks before beach trip

Russian President Putin and Cuban President Castro inspect graves at the Russian military cemetery in Havana

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to end the official part of his visit to Cuba early Friday -- before taking off for a weekend at the Caribbean island's world-famous beach resort of Varadero.

Putin was due to lay a wreath, visit a biotechnology center, and hold a news conference, before heading to Varadero later Friday, a two-hour drive out of Havana along Cuba's northern coastline, for a weekend in the sun.

The Russian, who left a cold Moscow winter behind, was personally invited to Varadero by President Fidel Castro, who is expected to join him for at least part of the time until he flies out from the resort to Canada on Sunday.

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After flying in the night before, Putin spent most of Thursday with Castro for formal ceremonies, talks and the signing of documents aimed at breathing new life into Moscow- Havana ties -- once one of the Cold War's strongest alliances, but quickly dismantled after the Soviet collapse a decade ago.

There was apparently no breakthrough in the crucial question of Cuba's enormous Soviet-era debt, which Russian media estimate at around $20 billion. Moscow wants repayment, but Havana says Russia should write it off as "compensation" for damages caused to Cuba's economy by the abrupt Soviet fall.

Putin joined Castro in condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Communist-ruled Cuba. But he was also careful to send congratulations to U.S. president-elect George W. Bush, and, in another gesture to Washington, has freed a convicted U.S. spy.

Also Thursday, Putin visited with Castro the Russian- operated Lourdes electronic intelligence center outside the Cuban capital, laid a wreath at the monument to "the Soviet internationalist warrior" and met parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcon, seen by some as a possible Castro successor.

Thursday ended with a gala reception hosted by Castro.

Although himself a proponent of multi-party democracy and free-market economics -- both of which Castro has rejected in Cuba -- Putin wants to rekindle Moscow's political and economic ties with its former Cold War ally.

In addition to the bilateral trade and investment benefits for Cuba, Putin is thought to want to rebuild Russia's global role, particularly in the Third World, and has not been shy about making advances to other nations viewed suspiciously by the West -- including Libya, North Korea and Iraq.

The last major visit to Cuba from Moscow was by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989.

Moscow believes part of Cuba's debt could be covered by Russian participation in some potentially lucrative projects left over from the Soviet era.

Unfinished projects include a nickel ore processing plant at Las Camariocas, modernization of the Cienfuegos and Santiago oil refineries and the incomplete Juragua nuclear plant, whose construction was halted in 1992.

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Government of the Russian Federation
Cubaweb
Cuban American National Foundation
Amnesty International Report 2000 report on Cuba
U.S. State Department
  • U.S. 1999 Human Rights Reports for Cuba
  • The U. S. and Cuba

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