Russian warships will arrive in Havana next week, say Cuban officials citing 'friendly relations'

Well, Cuba is trying to ease concerns about the arrival of Russian

warships

in Havana

next

week

. The ships

will

be there to conduct naval exercises alongside allies Moscow, Cuba and Venezuela. Cuban

officials

have said that the Russian ships

will

not have nuclear weapons on board and that they do not pose a threat to the region, US

officials

have said that they do not see the arrival of Russian ships in Cuba as a threat, but that the US Navy The US would be monitoring the exercises for more information. Let's cross over to our Havana correspondent at Augustine Ed.

What exactly are Cuban officials saying about what to expect when these exercises take place

next

week

? Well, as you said in your introduction, they have been discursively downplaying it. They have been saying that you know the submarine will not be armed with a nuclear missile it would be very strange considering how close Cuba is to the United States and the reaction that that would create but more than but but beyond the predictable um CU words for the Ministry I think the backdrop to this is Cuba's enormous capacity for economic crisis and its growing inability to keep the lights on.

I speak to you from Havana, where we are privileged, today we have only had four hours of cups of power in many of the provinces that make up most of the country. sometimes going up, uh, without 20, without 20 hours a day, so what we are seeing is that Cuba is trying to convince Russia, because they need the oil, they need the oil, and within that context, there has actually been quite a bit fanfare. about this within Cuba, so I received a press release this morning from the Cuban Ministry. Sorry, the Cuban revolutionary armed forces announced that it will be the day when the three

warships

and the submarine

arrive

in Havana.

Bay, there will be a 21-gun salute, so it's all pretty flashy, they'll get a little Dazzle on and I think what the Cubans are trying to do, I think what the Cuban politicians are trying to do. What they want to communicate to their population is that Cuba is not completely alone right now, that the regime has international allies and I think what they are trying to telegraph and implicitly communicate to the United States is that if they hit them, even harder with the sanctions, the sanctions have been reduced to unprecedented heights, since the Trump administration, the Biden administration kept most of them in place that are reaching out to Russia and that is not something that American policymakers, particularly in the Democratic Party, but many within the Republican Party want and that is why Cuba wants to increase and telegraph its nuisance value, but historically it has been very good at a time when, frankly, Cuba weighs on the headlines and weighs on the majority of policymakers in the United States.

Of course, this comes in the context of strained

relations

, to put it mildly, between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, but how does the Cuban public view the presence of Russian military power on its shores? As you can imagine on an island of 10 or 11 million people, I mean, it's worth saying that the way the Russian invasion of Ukraine is covered and talked about in many European nations is very different to how it is here, firstly geographically, um keba es is very far from that and people feel very far from that, secondly, the cheap prices are so brutalizing, such a correct word, people are up to their eyes with difficulties to put food in the plate, power outages, how will I be?

I was able to get to work that, in a sense, thinking about international issues like Russia, Ukraine, it seems a little abstract, and of course you have a lot of nostalgic value for the former Soviet Union. People remember when they were quite Russian, uh, we were. They were closer to Cuba, for better or worse, people had a better quality of life, especially among the older generations, there is nostalgic value and good memories, many people traveled there to study there, but in general it is not seen in the in the dangerous light that it is undoubtedly on the part of the NATO countries and I think that many people think that you practically know if they are going to bring us food if they are going to give us cheap gasoline if the Europeans don't I don't want to buy it so much the better, okay, we'll have to leave it there.

Our Havana correspondent Ed Augustine Ed. Thank you very much. We appreciate it very much here at the Father.