Cuba opposes Russian
spy base pullout HAVANA - Cuba responded
angrily on Wednesday to Russia's decision to pull out of a spy base on the
Communist-run Caribbean island, saying no agreement had been reached and
Moscow was ceding to U.S. pressure.
An official communique said closure of the Lourdes station would be "a grave risk" to Cuban security and accused President Vladimir Putin of wanting to give "a special present" to U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a scheduled weekend meeting. "The agreement for the Lourdes radio-electronic center is not canceled, as Cuba has not given its approval, and Russia will need to continue negotiating with the Cuban government given the important issues left to resolve," it said. Heralding the end of four decades of Russian military presence on its former Cold War ally, Putin announced earlier on Wednesday the withdrawal of the 1,500 personnel and families from the 37-year-old intelligence station outside Havana. Cuba acknowledged it had been in talks with a Russian envoy in Havana up until late Tuesday about Moscow's desire to withdraw from the base, which is just 90 miles (145 km) across the water from Florida. "We responded that we were in total disagreement and we proposed that they study other alternatives," said the communique read on state TV. Russia indicated its urgency in resolving the issue was due to the upcoming Putin-Bush meeting Sunday on the sidelines of a summit of Asia-Pacific nations in Shanghai, the Cuban statement added. "Anyone can understand how nice that news would be ... a special present," it commented. The piqued tone of Cuba's communique further illustrated the deterioration of Moscow-Havana relations since the collapse of Soviet communism put an end to one of the most emblematic political and economic partnerships of the Cold War period. After his 1959 revolution, President Fidel Castro steered Cuba into a close relationship with the Soviet Union, which sent thousands of soldiers to the island and kept the island's economy afloat. Moscow stationed warheads in Cuba, provoking the 1962 Missile Crisis standoff with the United States. Now, however, the two governments are poles apart ideologically, and Havana hails Russian economic and social problems as evidence of what happens if communism is abandoned. The Russian pullout from Lourdes has immediately flared into a diplomatic spat between Havana and Moscow, and would also deprive Cuba of $200 million annually in rent. Cuba said it had told Russia this week that "withdrawing the base was a message and a concession to the U.S. government which constituted a grave risk for the security of Cuba." It was an especially unwelcome move "at the very time the aggressive and warlike policy of the U.S. government is stronger than ever." The annual $200 million rent "was hardly an extraordinary figure if you take into account that it barely reaches three per cent of the damage caused to our economy by the disintegration of the Socialist bloc and the Soviet Union and the unilateral annulment of all the (commercial) accords," Cuba added. |
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