Igor Sechin Tested a New Approach to Cuba

Igor Sechin Tested a New Approach to Cuba

Moscow trying to apologize at Fidel Castro

At the end of last week a big Russian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba. The key target of the visit was restoring full-scale cooperation with the Isle of Freedom. However, according to the information of Kommersant, the effectiveness of the tour didn’t turn out that high because of the Cuban authorities offence at Moscow: the Castro brothers are displeased over Russia’s politicians discussing a deployment of military facilities in Cuba without asking Havana. 

According to the idea of the Russian delegation, the current visit to Cuba was to foster economic cooperation of Moscow and Havana. Apart from Igor Sechin, who assumed the post of the head of the inter-governmental commission (earlier it was chaired by Leonid Reiman), the delegation consisted of three members of the government – Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko, Communications and IT Minister Igor Shchegolev, and Education and Science Minister Andrey Fursenko. Interestingly, Russian politicians began mentioning Cuba in their statements more often as they started dwelling on Moscow’s relevant response to the U.S. deployment of AMD elements in Europe. Since the issue hadn’t been discussed with the Cuban leaders, it was decided at the last moment to include the military and political aspect in the talks’ agenda, according to the information Kommersant got from the delegation’s member. To this end, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev joined the delegation on Cuba. He actually hadn’t planned a visit to Havana before – he was on his way home from Rio de Janeiro, where he’d seen a volleyball tournament (Mr Patrushev is Chief of the Russian Federation of Volleyball).

For all that, Cuba’s government has been concerned about the fueled speculations over a possible deployment of Russia’s military facilities on the island. After Russia’s Izvestiya paper informed about Moscow’s plans to deploy strategic bombers on Cuba, and Norton A. Schwartz, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, stated that doing this Russia will “cross the red line,” the Cuban leaders were offended that the Russian party hadn’t consulted with them. Fidel Castro even wrote a small article headlined “The Machiavellian Strategy,” where he praised his brother Raul for neglecting those statements. According to the sources of Kommersant in Havana, the hype reminded Cuba’s leaders about old offences they had at Moscow, which has always forgotten to let them know about the decisions taken.

Fidel Castro refused to meet with the Russian delegation, whereas he has received foreign guests quite often. A month ago he met with a smaller delegation of the People’s Republic of China headed by Politburo Standing Committee member He Gotsyan. Nevertheless, according to the source ofKommersant, the meeting hadn’t been planned, and all important issues were negotiated with President Raul Castro and Vice-President Carlos Lage Dávila.

After the talks, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Andrey Klimov told RIA Novosti, “Russia may take a decision about its military presence on Cuba in response to the AMD deployment. If America deploys its AMD systems closely to our border, Russia can also deploy its systems on the territories of the states which will accept it.” Some time later RIA Novosti reported, with reference to a high-ranking Cuban diplomat, that Havana “is ready to cooperate with Russia in civil branches, but it’s unlikely to be in favor of resuming military cooperation, especially after the incident with Lurdes (in 2001 Russia’s military base was quickly closed despite the Cuban party’s protest).”

Officials with the Russian delegation assured Kommersant that the economic aspect of the talks proceeded smoothly. For example, Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko discussed a matter of Russian companies’ participation in developing the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Deputy Gazprom Chief Alexander Medvedev, Rosneft Vice-president Mikhail Stavsky, and Surgutneftegaz CEO Vladimir Bogdanov took part in the negotiations as well. Deputy Industry and trade Minister Denis Manturov raised a question of cooperation in pharmaceutics, and in particular, producing Cuba’s biomedicines in Russia. Communications and IT Minister Igor Shchegolev discussed a matter of Russia’s participation in developing cell phone communications in Cuba. Education and Science Minister Andrey Fursenko held talks about students and professors’ exchange between Russian and Cuban high schools.

Posted in: Igor Sechin