Russia on Thursday emphasized its “full solidarity” with Cuba, taking sides with the country against the United States as Washington escalates a pressure campaign against Havana’s Communist leadership. The tough rhetoric from Moscow followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent message that appeared to tacitly call on the Cuban people to overthrow their Communist government. It also came after the Justice Department indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro, which the U.S. could use as grounds to arrest leadership, as it did with former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. “We will continue to provide the most active support to the fraternal Cuban people during this extremely difficult period,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters during a news briefing in Moscow. “We reaffirm our full solidarity with Cuba and strongly condemn any attempts at gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, intimidation, and the use of illegal unilateral restrictive measures, threats, and blackmail.”
Russia has for decades crafted a close alliance with Cuba, helping to propel Communism on the Caribbean island just 90 miles from the coast of Florida after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959. The island republic has played a key role in allowing Russia to assert influence in the Western Hemisphere, making it a “special relationship” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov vowed last month would continue.
