Soviet Paper Portrays Cuba as Police State

A Soviet newspaper, in a rare attack on Moscow’s longtime Caribbean ally, Wednesday portrayed Cuba as an impoverished police state where popular discontent is emerging.

Vladimir Orlov, of the weekly Moscow News, wrote after visiting Havana that by attacking change in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Cuba aims “to take on the role of a wise man who alone knows the true path.”

“Cuban society is more stable than in the majority of socialist countries . . . thanks to a network of committees for the defense of the revolution” that track down people listening to foreign radio or holding “politically immature conversations,” he wrote.

He said Cuba’s almost total rationing system is “a barrier to poverty but gives no stimulus to work.”