Putin Visit Revives Moscow’s Ties With Cuba

Nearly a decade after the Soviet Union’s collapse plunged Cuba into continuing crisis, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin mended fences Thursday with leader Fidel Castro, signing an array of economic and political accords with the island nation that remains in Communist hands just 90 miles off America’s shores.

The two leaders also spoke in a single voice in condemning the 39-year-old U.S. economic embargo of Cuba and calling on the world to unite against “American hegemony” and a new world order that has left more than 200 million Latin Americans in poverty.

Putin’s four-day visit here, viewed with suspicion by the lame-duck Clinton administration, is seen as a watershed in the former KGB official’s effort to extend Russia’s global influence anew. It marked the first time a Russian leader has visited Latin America since Castro greeted Soviet president Mikhail S. Gorbachev with a bearhug in 1989--two years before the fall of communism in Russia.

Late Wednesday, the leader of one of the world’s last communist bastions greeted Putin with a polite, firm handshake at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. And on Thursday, the aging Castro, dressed in trademark military fatigues, escorted the dark-suited Putin to wreath-layings and a private meeting where, Putin later said, “We decided we will build a relationship between our countries based upon the warm feelings and high-level relationship that already exists.”

Putin was also scheduled Thursday to go to a Russian-staffed electronic listening post outside this capital that still eavesdrops on U.S. strategic communications, although there was no official confirmation that he visited the Russian intelligence officers stationed there.

Signaling a new era of Russian-Cuban cooperation, the two leaders signed accords setting trade goals for the next five years between two nations that already share nearly $1 billion in annual trade--much of it oil-for-sugar barter arrangements that are vital to Cuba’s cash- and fuel-starved economy.

Putin, however, gave no indication that now-capitalist Russia intends to excuse Cuba’s debt, even after a decade of neglect by Moscow that he called a mistake. The Russian press has estimated the debt at $20 billion; Havana’s 30-year relationship with Moscow has left everyone from Cuban military leaders to motorists dependent on Soviet technology.

Cuba has said that some of that debt should be excused to compensate for the severe damage done to its economy through the sudden loss of billions of dollars in promised aid when the Soviet Union broke apart.

Still, for ordinary Cubans in the streets, where ancient, broken-down Soviet Lada and Moskvich cars are as ubiquitous as the billboards that defiantly trumpet communist slogans, the expectations from Putin’s visit were as basic as a sparkplug, a fan belt or an oil filter.

“Mostly the professionals, many of them have [crumbling] Russian Ladas . . . have the hope that someday, in the end, there will be spare parts to keep these vintage cars running,” said Moises Saab, a Cuban journalist and commentator.

More important, the Cuban military also is hungry for spare parts. Its engineers and maintenance crews have ingeniously kept Soviet-era naval vessels afloat and aircraft aloft by patching holes and improvising with parts from factory machinery because the Russian parts are too pricey in the international market.

The Cuban government--which has kept the economy going with the help of billions of dollars in new investment from Spain, Canada, Venezuela and other nations--also is hoping that Russia will again join in such vital, partially built, projects as a nickel-processing complex, an oil refinery and a nuclear power plant.

During a brief meeting with reporters Thursday, Castro said he hopes the visit will “open great perspectives for the development of relations between Russia and Cuba.” Putin said, “We must clearly and precisely realize what in our relationship is realistic and what is the heritage of the past.”

Putin, who has already drawn U.S. suspicion by meeting with the leaders of such traditional American enemies as North Korea, Libya and Iraq, called Cuba “our traditional, long-standing and reliable partner” in an interview with Russia’s state television before leaving Moscow this week.

He added that he regretted the past decade’s “slump” in economic relations, when “the positions of Russian enterprises were occupied by our foreign competitors.”

“A substantial part of Cuba’s economy was created with the direct economic and technical assistance of the Soviet Union,” Putin said. “And who, if not we, should participate in the reconstruction, the rebuilding of these enterprises?”

The Russian leader’s official visit ends later today, but he is scheduled to spend the weekend at one of Cuba’s new luxury beach resorts outside Havana before departing for Canada.