Signal to Washington
Russia sends Northern Fleet ships to Cuba
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Moscow is sending several ships from the Northern Fleet to Cuba for a port visit. Washington sees the deployment as a signal. According to a US official, the Kremlin wants to show a reaction to the release of weapons to Kiev last week.
According to the Cuban government, the Russian Navy will send four ships from the Northern Fleet to Havana for an official port visit next week. According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, these are the frigate “Admiral Gorshkov”, the nuclear submarine “Kazan”, the oil tanker “Pashin” and the salvage tug “Nikolay Chiker”. None of the ships have nuclear weapons on board and their presence in the port of Havana poses no danger to the region. According to official information, the reason for the visit from June 12 to 17 is the historical friendship between the two states.
The US newspaper “Miami Herald” reported on Wednesday evening (local time), citing an anonymous, high-ranking US government official, that Russia is planning military exercises with aircraft and warships in the Caribbean in the coming weeks. These would be the first exercises by the Russian military in the Western Hemisphere with air and sea components in five years – and thus also since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. According to the official, this could include port visits by warships in Cuba and Venezuela. Both countries are allies of Russia.
The US government sees the move as a response to the fact that it gave Ukraine permission last week to use American weapons on a limited basis against targets on Russian territory, the report said. According to the assessment, Moscow wants to send a message and worry the US with increased activity near the United States. “It's about Russia showing that it is still capable of demonstrating a certain level of maritime strength,” the official told the newspaper.
Havana is only about 170 kilometers from Key West in the US state of Florida. The history of the two countries is remembered for the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962. At that time, US reconnaissance aircraft discovered Soviet medium-range missiles on the Caribbean island. The then US President John F. Kennedy did not want to tolerate missiles on Cuba and threatened to use force. After days of poker, Moscow gave in and withdrew its weapons at the last minute. In return, the USA declared a renunciation of violence against communist Cuba and withdrew missiles from Turkey.
