By Nelson Acosta
HAVANA (Reuters) -Havana residents watched from shore on Saturday as Russian warships arrived for the second time in as many months, in a go to that Cuba known as routine.
Cuban authorities fired photographs into the air to sign their welcome, whereas curious fishermen watched from Havana’s waterside promenade because the ships superior up the bay. Russian residents have been additionally among the many few up early to see the fleet’s arrival.
The patrol ship Neustrahimiy, coaching vessel Smolniy and help vessels, all from the Baltic Fleet, are scheduled to depart on Tuesday.
A quick assertion by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces described their arrival as routine.
A Russian nuclear submarine, frigate and help ships in June additionally flexed Moscow’s muscular tissues within the port of Havana, lower than 100 miles (160 km) from Florida.
“Russia’s deployments in the Atlantic pose no direct threat or concern to the United States,” a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson mentioned, including the command monitored all approaches to North America.
Tensions between america and Russia have elevated since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Russian naval exercise – although routine within the Atlantic – has ratcheted up due to U.S. help for Ukraine, U.S. officers say.
Concurrently, relations between Chilly Struggle allies Russia and Cuba have markedly improved because the Communist-run nation battles an financial disaster it fees is due primarily to U.S. sanctions.
Excessive-level contacts between the international locations have elevated to a degree not seen because the fall of Cuba’s former benefactor, the Soviet Union, with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visiting Moscow 4 occasions.
Russia has despatched oil, flour and growing numbers of vacationers to the Caribbean nation, which is wanting money and items. Residents endure by every day energy outages and different travails, leading to scattered protests and file migration.
Ana Garces, a 78-year-old retiree, informed Reuters she remembered the Soviet Union was the one nation to assist Cuba in the course of the 1962 missile disaster, the height of tensions with Washington when the world teetered getting ready to nuclear conflict.
“We are very grateful,” she mentioned. “Why should we not receive it with open arms? This is friendship. All kinds of ships have entered here.”
“It shows how other countries do support us and takes away a little of the world’s mentality about our country,” added her husband, 71-year-old retiree Rolando Perez.
