Trajan
Veteran
MOSCOW—Russia has written off $32 billion of Cuba's outstanding debt, which represents the main bulk of the funds the Caribbean republic obtained from the Soviet Union decades ago.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the debt write-off Friday, the Kremlin said in a statement, after the country's parliament approved the law.
The move comes as Mr. Putin arrived in Havana to meet with Cuba's top officials as part of his tour of Latin America. He is also set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Brazil this weekend.
Russia's generosity appears to follow strategic rather than commercial interests, says Jaime Suchlicki, a Cuba expert at the University of Miami. Mr. Putin, he said, was interested in obtaining a berth for Russia's fleet at the port of Mariel which opened earlier this year on the island's north coast.
"Russia also wants to put a space tracking station in Cuba, which can double as an electronics listening facility aimed at the U.S.," Mr. Suchlicki said.
The port, financed by Brazil, is seen by Havana as crucial to its economic future, as it seeks to accommodate the larger ships expected to pass through an expanded Panama Canal. The sleepy town of Mariel was the site of the 1980 exodus that saw 125,000 Cubans leave the island for the U.S.
In forgiving the debt, Russia follows Mexico, which last year agreed to forgive $478 million of Cuban debt.
At the time, a top Mexican official said that while there was no chance Cuba could repay its debt, Mexico was interested in reviving moribund trade ties with the island in a bid to counterbalance growing Brazilian influence in Cuba, which lies astride the Gulf of Mexico, and is close to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
The debt forgiveness is the latest step in a Cuban-Russian rapprochement. For decades, Cuba depended on the former Soviet Union, which provided billions of dollars in aid, mainly in the form of subsidized oil exchanged in payment for high-price Cuban sugar. After the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, the Cuban economy plunged, with the island's gross domestic product contracting by at least 35%.
As Soviet subsidies disappeared, Cuba entered a "special period" of scarcity and hardship, which forced then-President Fidel Castro to grudgingly allow the use of U.S. dollars on the island as Havana scrambled to survive.
Since 1999, Cuba has largely depended on Venezuela, which sends nearly 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil products daily and grants other economic benefits worth at least $6 billion.
In exchange, Cuba has sent tens of thousands of doctors, sports trainers, security advisers and other technicians to Venezuela. The Communist island also leans heavily on remittances sent from Cuban émigrés and exiles living abroad.
In recent years, Cuban President Raúl Castro has begun a cautious overhaul program, which, among other things, has increased the number of jobs and professions which Cubans are permitted to perform.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/russia-writes-off-cuba-debt-1405083869
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the debt write-off Friday, the Kremlin said in a statement, after the country's parliament approved the law.
The move comes as Mr. Putin arrived in Havana to meet with Cuba's top officials as part of his tour of Latin America. He is also set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Brazil this weekend.
Russia's generosity appears to follow strategic rather than commercial interests, says Jaime Suchlicki, a Cuba expert at the University of Miami. Mr. Putin, he said, was interested in obtaining a berth for Russia's fleet at the port of Mariel which opened earlier this year on the island's north coast.
"Russia also wants to put a space tracking station in Cuba, which can double as an electronics listening facility aimed at the U.S.," Mr. Suchlicki said.
The port, financed by Brazil, is seen by Havana as crucial to its economic future, as it seeks to accommodate the larger ships expected to pass through an expanded Panama Canal. The sleepy town of Mariel was the site of the 1980 exodus that saw 125,000 Cubans leave the island for the U.S.
In forgiving the debt, Russia follows Mexico, which last year agreed to forgive $478 million of Cuban debt.
At the time, a top Mexican official said that while there was no chance Cuba could repay its debt, Mexico was interested in reviving moribund trade ties with the island in a bid to counterbalance growing Brazilian influence in Cuba, which lies astride the Gulf of Mexico, and is close to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
The debt forgiveness is the latest step in a Cuban-Russian rapprochement. For decades, Cuba depended on the former Soviet Union, which provided billions of dollars in aid, mainly in the form of subsidized oil exchanged in payment for high-price Cuban sugar. After the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, the Cuban economy plunged, with the island's gross domestic product contracting by at least 35%.
As Soviet subsidies disappeared, Cuba entered a "special period" of scarcity and hardship, which forced then-President Fidel Castro to grudgingly allow the use of U.S. dollars on the island as Havana scrambled to survive.
Since 1999, Cuba has largely depended on Venezuela, which sends nearly 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil products daily and grants other economic benefits worth at least $6 billion.
In exchange, Cuba has sent tens of thousands of doctors, sports trainers, security advisers and other technicians to Venezuela. The Communist island also leans heavily on remittances sent from Cuban émigrés and exiles living abroad.
In recent years, Cuban President Raúl Castro has begun a cautious overhaul program, which, among other things, has increased the number of jobs and professions which Cubans are permitted to perform.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/russia-writes-off-cuba-debt-1405083869
you doing fukking around here for? 