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Putin pledges to help Cuba Alexei Anishchuk and Daniel Trotta, Reuters, Havana, 11 July 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to help Cuba's offshore oil exploration on Friday at the start of a six-day tour of Latin America. Putin was joined in Havana by Igor Sechin, the chairman of state oil company Rosneft, to finalize a deal to explore for oil off Cuba's northern coast. The Russian president also promised to reinvest $3.5 billion of Cuban debt with Russia into development projects on the island, part of a deal in which Russia forgave 90 percent of Cuba's debt, or almost $32 billion, most of it originating from Soviet loans to a fellow communist state. Both measures inject much-needed foreign investment into Cuba and demonstrate an act of defiance against the 52-year-old United States blockade of Cuba. "We will provide support to our Cuban friends to overcome the illegal blockade of Cuba," Putin said. Putin will also visit Argentina and Brazil for bilateral talks, and while in Brazil he will participate in a summit of the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday. On his first stop in Cuba, Putin met with former President Fidel Castro and current President Raul Castro before receiving the Medal of Jose Marti, Cuba's highest decoration. For an hour Fidel Castro and Putin discussed international affairs, the global economy and Russian-Cuban relations, the Kremlin said. Any major oil find would radically improve Cuba's economic trajectory. Cuba produces about 55,000 barrels per day (bdp) through onshore wells and imports about 110,000 bpd on favorable terms from Venezuela. "Developing new blocks on Cuba's offshore shelf is (expected) in the very near future," Putin said. From: http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL2N0PM1MP20140711?sp=true -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
