Russia and Cuba deepen relations
Russia and Cuba deepen relations
A historic relation enters a new stage amid worldwide change
The complicated question of the collapse of the Soviet Union can perhaps be understood as a consequence of unresolved contradictions since the time of Stalin combined with betrayal by certain key actors. The result was not Western style “liberty” but control of the country by the mafia and economic hardship for the people.
Western mainstream commentators assume that Putin’s recent victory by a strong margin in the presidential elections is a consequence of electoral fraud and authoritarian rule. The assumption is based not only in a Cold War mentality but also on a lack of appreciation for what Putin has meant for Russia.
Putin possesses the capacity to speak honestly and accurately concerning the contradictions of the Soviet Union. He was capable of building a coalition of forces that was able to take back control of the country from the mafia. He has forged a new nationalism based in defending Russian interests and territory in the face of Western economic imperialism and territorial expansionism, and rooted in reaffirmation of Russian values. In foreign affairs, he has developed relations with nations constructing socialism, including China, and with progressive states, thereby playing a leading role in the construction of a more democratic pluripolar world. He has, in short, restored Russia’s national honor.
Cuba, since the triumph of its people’s revolution in 1959, has sought relations of mutual respect and mutual benefit with the Western powers, with the Soviet-let Eastern European socialist bloc, with the People’s Republic of China, with sister nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the formerly colonized nations of Africa and Asia. With these goals in mind, Cuba has played a central role in the Non-Aligned Movement, serving as its president from 1979 to 1983 and 2006 to 2009. In this capacity, Cuba led the Movement, which today has 120 member states, toward a further development of its historic principles of respect for the sovereignty of nations and non-interference in the internal affairs of states, as the foundation for the construction of a new international order, more just and democratic.
§
Cuba and Russia have established the Intergovernmental Cuban-Russian Commission for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technical Collaboration. Its purpose is to stimulate bilateral cooperation in economic, commercial, and financial relations in the short, medium, and long term.
The XXI Session of the Intergovernmental Cuban-Russian Commission was initiated in Moscow on March 15, 2024. The Cuban delegation was led by Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Commerce and Foreign Investment; while the Russian delegation was headed by Russian Vice-President Dmitri N. Chernyshenko. Participants in the Cuban delegation included the Minister of Tourism and the President of the Central Bank; first vice ministers of the ministries of transportation, public health, and education; and vice ministers of foreign commerce and investment, energy and mines, industry, higher education, construction, and science, technology and environment.
The Commission is composed of seventeen workgroups, each of which reports on the work developed in their area. The Commission seeks the development of Russian-Cuban cooperation in commerce and industry; banking and finance; agriculture; health; energy; transportation; geology and mining; information and communication technology; science, technology, and the environment; culture and sport; customs duties; tourism; construction, among others. In the XXI Session, emphasis was given to the conception and implementation of Russian foreign investment in Cuba, taking into account Cuban priorities. Also stressed was the need to facilitate systematic contact between Cuban and Russian economic sectors.
During the XXI Session, agreements of cooperation were signed with respect to general education and professional formation; geological research; formation of banking personnel; and medical research in obstetrics, gynecology, and perinatology. Agreement also was reached for the supplying of wheat to Cuba with Russian government credit.
§
One of the key initiatives at present is the expansion of the presence of Russian companies in Cuban tourism, which is the engine of the Cuban economy. Favorable results have been attained thus far, with the number of tourists proceeding from the Russian Federation having attained a record level in 2023, such that Russia is now the third highest source of visitors to the island. Opportunities for Russian investment in Cuban tourism are under discussion. In this regard, Cabrisas and Cuban Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos García Granda met with the chiefs of the Russian State company RF Tourism.
A second key initiative at present is the expansion of bilateral relations in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. The development of said industries has been a high priority for Cuban state investment for decades, and they are central to Cuba’s development plan. At present, an ample process of international alliances involving various Cuban companies of the group BioCubaFarma is underway.
On March 18, five contracts and memorandums of understanding were signed between four Russian Companies and companies of BioCubaFarma. (1) An agreement was signed between the Russian company BKF and the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB for its initials in Spanish) for the clinical development and registration of the product Jusvinza in the territory of Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union (which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan). Jusvinza was developed by CIGB for use in the treatment of seriously or critically ill hospitalized patients testing positive for COVID-19 and in the treatment of persons identified with a condition of hyperinflammation.
(2) An agreement was signed between BKF and the Center for Molecular Immunology of Havana (CIM) for the clinical development and distribution in the territory of the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Economic Union of CIMAvax, a therapeutic vaccine against advanced lung cancer.
(3) An agreement was signed between the director general of the Russian company Alfanil, Dmitri Chelovsky, and the vice-director of CIM, Kalet León, for the clinical development and registration of the product IL-2 Mutein in Russia and other countries.
(4) A contract was signed between the Casa Comercial Kupiechesky and CIGB for the health registration of the products GAVAC and Hebernem for distribution in Russia.
(5) A contract of cooperation was signed between Phitovit and CIGB for the development of a vaccine against African swine fever, which establishes a connection between the two countries involving the joint development of research and the joint search for R&D financing.
Cabrisas pointed out that these five agreements not only have importance for a key sector of the Cuban economy, but they also are significant from a scientific point of view and with respect to public health.
§
The relation between the two countries includes a Commission of Cooperation between the Federal Assembly of Russia and the National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba. Accordingly, Cabrisas on March 20 was received by Viacheslav Volodin, President of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly. Volodin was accompanied by leading Russian parliamentarians, including Ivan Mielnikov, First Vice President of the State Duma and First Vice President of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation; and Alexander Babkov, Vice President of the State Duma. During the encounter, the bilateral relations of cooperation between Cuba and Russia were characterized as strategic relations between allies, significant terms in diplomatic discourse. Cabrisas was accompanied by Julio Garmendía Peña, Ambassador of Cuba in Russia, and Carlos Luis Jorge Méndez, Vice Minister of Foreign Commerce and Foreign Investment.
Cabrisas also met with Valentina Matvienko, President of the Council of the Russian Federation, the Senate or upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. The meeting with Matvienko stressed the attainment of the effective participation of the Russian Federation in the Cuban National Plan of Economic and Social Development until 2030, in accordance with several documents that were signed in 2023. There was agreement in the meeting concerning the potential to develop new cooperation with respect to the Cuban sugar industry and the development of renewable resources. Matvienko was accompanied by Konstantín Kosachov, Vice-President of the Russian Federation Council and other senators as well as representatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cabrisas was accompanied by Garmendía Peña and Jorge Méndez.
§
At the conclusion of his visit to Moscow, Vice Prime Minister Cabrisas visited the headquarters of the International Investment Bank (IIB) in Moscow, a multilateral financial institution of which Cuba is a member. In a meeting with the various members of the management of IIB, Cabrisas stressed the importance of Cuban presence in the institution. Serguey Kudriashov, Director General of the entity, asserted the importance of their projects in Cuba, and in particular, the work that is being conducted jointly with the Cuban state petroleum company (Cupet) in hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in Boca de Jaruco. The Cuban Vice-Minister of Energy and Mines, Tatiana Amarán Bogachova, who accompanied Cabrisas in the visit, recognized the work of the Russian company, characterizing it as a positive example of foreign investment.
Cabrisas also met with Sergey Levin, Vice Minister of Agriculture of the Federation of Russia. Sergey expressed appreciation for the high priority given in the Cuban National Plan for Economic and Social Development to the production of food and to the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. In addition, he pointed out the possibilities in the Cuban agricultural sector to introduce new products for commercialization in the international market, thus recovering currency that is used for the importation of necessary goods and supplies. He mentioned in this regard joint development in the recuperation of the Cuban sugar industry.
§
On March 12, 2024, prior to the arrival of the Cuban delegation, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed four protocols concerning the agreement of a loan of the Russian government to the Cuban government, which involves a needed restructuring of the Cuban debt. The protocols amend the agreements of April 27, 2023, signed in Moscow, which grant credits for Russian petroleum exported to Cuba from 2009 to 2019. The amendments specify the terms of payment of the debt, which is to occur in rubles during the period 2023 to 2040. The modified agreement was previously approved by the Russian State Duma.
§
Final considerations
Cuba is like the great majority of countries in development, which have not had sufficient capital and human resources to attain advances in manufacturing, science, and technology. To promote their economic and social development, they need access to capital and technology, and they need to use them intelligently in accordance with a long-term plan for development.
At the zenith of the capitalist world-economy, there was a general pattern of investment that promoted the underdevelopment of the peripheral zones in which capital was invested. The process is infamously illustrated by the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company, which invested in the production of bananas in Central America and the Caribbean. United Fruit employed local labor at less-than-subsistence wages and exported the bananas and the profits, thus consuming labor and natural resources without leaving benefits. The U.S. government supported the nefarious process, interfering in the internal affairs of nations to ensure policies consistent with the interests of United Fruit. The development of these general patterns in the capitalist world-economy was described by the U.S. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1970s and 1980s, who characterized the phenomenon as a geographical division of labor between core and periphery, involving the superexploitation of labor and unequal exchange between regions.
As is reasonable, the colonized and the neocolonized resisted. Beginning in the 1950s, key leaders from the peripheralized zones began to formulate the characteristics of an alternative international economic order, more just and democratic. From the point of view of the colonized, core investment in production in their regions was necessary, but it has to be designed to promote industrial and technological development. The nations of the world must have their sovereignty respected, so that they would have the freedom and autonomy to formulate plans for national development, identifying the economic sectors in which investment was needed. From their vantage point, the wealthy nations of the core had an interest in cooperation with the development agendas formulated by the nations of the world, because it would be the road toward the construction of a peaceful and prosperous world order. Since the 1950s, except for the lost decades of the 1980s and 1990s, the nations of the peripheralized and semi-peripheralized zones have formed regional and international organizations that have repeatedly put forth the principles that should guide humanity: respect for the sovereignty of nations; non-interference in the internal affairs of states; and mutually beneficial economic, commercial, and financial relations among nations, seeking the common development of all.
The vision of the colonized for an alternative international order is being implemented in the relation between Russia and Cuba. Confronting economic difficulties as a result of the intensification of the U.S. blockade and the pandemic, the Cuban leadership has explained to the people the steps the nation needs to take to improve the situation: the recovery of tourism, including new investments in the sector; the increase of agricultural production, especially food; the international marketing of Cuba’s pharmaceutical products and medical services; and a restructuring of Cuba’s external debt. These are precisely the areas in which cooperation with Russia is unfolding, suggesting that Russia is permitting Cuba to identify its development needs and is looking for ways to respond to these needs in a form that also benefits Russia. In addition, Russia is investing in Cuban exploitation of petroleum, cited by a Cuban government official as an example of how foreign investment ought to work.
It should be noted that at the time of the Cuban nationalizations of U.S. properties in Cuba, including the infamous United Fruit Company, Fidel proposed a relation of cooperation between the two countries, but with characteristics that made possible Cuban economic and social development. It also should be noted that fruitful cooperation between Cuba and Russia is not new. An examination of the development of the Cuban nickel industry in the era of the Soviet Union reveals that, even though there was some tension in the process, it was in many respects a model of North-South cooperation.
Different from the era of the Soviet Union, however, Russian-Cuban cooperation today occurs in a time in which many nations of the world are seeking to develop mutually beneficial relations of cooperation with other nations. This process of worldwide political-economic-social transformation, in which China is playing a leading and important role, is based on the premise that the established world order, characterized by competing imperialisms seeking short-term profits, is no longer sustainable.
A free subscription option is available, with capacity to read, send, and share all posts. A paid subscription ($5 per month or $40 per year) enables you to make comments and to support the costs of the column; paid subscribers also receive a free PDF copy of my book on Cuba and the world-system. Ten percent of income generated through subscriptions to the column is donated to the Cuban Society for Philosophical Investigations.