By Michael McGuire. Tribune Staff Writer.
Chicago Tribune. December 14,
2000.
HAVANA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled talks Thursday with
Cuban officials to explore mutual economic opportunities and planned to play the
role of a tourist on warm Caribbean sand he apparently hopes other Russians also
might soon enjoy.
Russian officials said Putin, who arrived in Havana late Wednesday, would
spend Thursday and early Friday on official business and then head to the
island's popular Varadero beach for two days of secluded rest, while
thermometers in the Russian capital were expected to plunge below freezing.
Once economically dependent upon the Soviet Union and its East European
allies, Cuba was plunged into despair at the end the Cold War, when Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev and his Russian successor, Boris Yeltsin, ended
Moscow's virtual subsidization of Cuba and began to distance the Kremlin from
the island.
Cuba survived the recession that followed but was forced to open its economy
to outside investment.
Putin said Moscow's policy has switched from ideological ties to business
promotion, searching for ways for Russian firms to vie with European, Canadian
and Latin American companies doing business in Cuba in the absence of
competition from the United States. Washington has an economic embargo against
the Castro government.
While investors from other countries dominate 370 foreign capital projects
set up in Cuba over the last decade, the first Russian-Cuban joint venture, to
assemble and repair sugar locomotive diesel engines, is only just getting
started.
Authorities said the visit's agenda also includes tourism development,
repayment of debts, mutual military matters and trade. Putin's visit is the
first by a top Kremlin leader since Gorbachev visited the island in 1989.
"Unfortunately for us, in the years when our economic contacts
collapsed, many important aspects of our mutual activity were squandered, and
the position of Russian enterprises were taken by foreign competitors,"
Putin said on the ORT television channel before departing Moscow. He said the
time had come not only to "rediscover our interest," but also to
regain Russia's clout in Latin America.
Oleg Podolko, head of Russia's Commercial Mission in Havana, said Moscow's
job was "to widen our trade relations so they don't just consist of sugar
for oil."
Only 90 miles from Key West, Cuba's strategic value to the Kremlin was
considered priceless during the Cold War, despite the narrow escape from a
global nuclear conflagration that followed the Soviet effort to install nuclear
missiles on the island in 1962.
Despite the once close connections with Moscow, there was little evidence of
official or public interest in the Putin visit Wednesday on the streets of
Havana.
Cuban television mentioned the upcoming visit in one-line news
announcements, and no Russian flags or welcoming banners were in place Wednesday
as darkness began to enshroud Havana hours before the visit.
"It's a contrast to other times," said a Havana resident. "I
remember once when Brezhnev visited, thousands lined the street waving red flags
and cheering at the top of their voice. Welcoming signs were everywhere."
Observers in Havana speculated that the low-key element in advance of the
visit might have been at the request of the Russian government or a sign of
Cuban leader Fidel Castro's dissatisfaction over the near abandonment of his
nation by a former friend.
In Moscow, Putin called the cooling of Russian-Cuban relations an incorrect
decision that had resulted in great damage.
Russian officials said trade with Cuba now is close to $1 billion a year,
well below the $3.6 billion racked up in 1991. About 20 percent of Cuba's gross
national product was estimated to have come from Soviet subsidies at one time.
The number of top officials scheduled to travel with Putin is relatively
small, and include Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov.
The Associated Press said Nuclear Minister Yevgeny Adamov is not scheduled
to be in the delegation, an indication that no substantive agreements are
expected during this trip on the unfinished Juragua nuclear power plant.
The plant was being built with Soviet technical help and financing before
construction was abandoned after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Putin, however, was expected to promote Russia's participation in completing
construction of Soviet-era projects including the Las Camariocas nickel plant
and the Cienfuegos oil refinery, according to Russian media.
Agreements on cooperation in legal affairs and the health field also were
prepared for the trip, according to Russian reports. | 