During the Cold War, Cuba was an important puppet state for the Soviet Union
Havana:
A Russian nuclear-powered submarine and other naval vessels arrived in Cuba on Wednesday for a five-day visit to the communist island off the coast of Florida, in a show of force amid rising tensions between the US and Russia.
The submarine Kazan, which Cuba says does not carry nuclear weapons, was accompanied by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, as well as an oil tanker and a salvage tug.
The Kazan and Admiral Gorshkov, one of Russia’s most modern warships, were seen just off Havana, about 90 miles from the tip of Florida.
The tanker Pashin and the tugboat, flying Russia’s white, blue and red tricolor, entered the port early Wednesday morning, an AFP reporter said.
The Cuban government announced that Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday, as the two former Cold War allies further strengthen their ties.
The unusual deployment of the Russian military so close to the United States – especially the powerful submarine – comes amid high tensions over the war in Ukraine, where the Western-backed government is fighting a Russian invasion.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel met with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month for the annual May 9 military parade in Red Square outside the Kremlin.
During the Cold War, Cuba was an important puppet state for the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island caused the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war.
Relations between Russia and Cuba have grown closer since a meeting between Diaz-Canel and Putin in 2022.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
