From Giles Whittell in Moscow.
The Times.. London, wednesday December
13 2000.
PRESIDENT PUTIN flies to Cuba today on a controversial mission to revive
relations with Moscow's most loyal ally, at the cost of worsening chilled
relations with America.
The trip is seen as a slight to the United States as it struggles to choose
a President. Mr Putin and President Castro will roll back history by agreeing
that their countries should not have become estranged after the fall of
Communism.
In an interview with Cuban television yesterday Mr Putin acknowledged that a
winding down of Russia's links with Cuba under Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin
was not "the right thing to do". He hinted at renewed investment to
complete Cuba's Juragua nuclear power station, construction of which was stopped
in the 1980s, and modernisation of the Lourdes listening post.
Washington wants both facilities shut down. He also condemned the US trade
embargo against Cuba.
The two-day visit is the latest in a series of high-profile trips by Mr
Putin to America's sworn enemies. He visited Kim Jong Il, the North Korean
leader, in summer en route to a summit in Japan, and has dispatched emissaries
to Iraq, Iran and Libya. Mr Putin has also recently infuriated President Clinton
by refusing to intervene in the trial of Edmund Pope, convicted last week of
trying to buy Russian naval secrets, and by using private channels to encourage
the Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat in a hardline stance in the Middle East
crisis.
Mr Putin appears set to exploit America's electoral deadlock in Washington's
own hemisphere. "The time has come . . . to regain our positions in Latin
America as these meet Russia's economic and national interests," he said. "Many
states in that region and the world want our country to display an active
foreign political position."
The implicit claim, that Latin America is looking to Moscow as a
counterweight to US global dominance, will be welcomed in leftwing circles but
will cut little ice in Washington. Publicly, Mr Putin's aim is to resolve
Havana's $11 billion (£7.6 billion) debt to Russia, built up over three
decades when Soviet aid accounted for up to 20 per cent of Cuba's gross national
product.
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. | 