Work on the nuclear power station ground to a halt in 1992 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The foundations for the plant, located at Juraguá in the central province of Cienfuegos, were 90 percent complete and about 40 percent of the heavy machinery had been installed at the time. It was estimated that an additional $600-$800 million was needed to complete the facility.

Putin told the press in Cuba at the end of his visit, "Our Cuban friends are not showing any interest in continuing the construction of this plant."

Cuban president Fidel Castro said the government was pursuing more efficient means of producing electrical power, including building gas-fired power plants using gas from Cuban oil wells.

Cuban and Russian officials signed an economic accord during Putin's visit, the first for a Russian president since 1989, and issued a joint statement condemning the U.S. embargo of the country.

"Russia is right to be paying more and more attention now to the Latin American aspect of its foreign policy," Putin said. "Cuba's role has been great and extremely important for us because it always had an independent position...favoring the development of democratic principles in international relations."

But the Russian leader also pressed the Cuban government over payments on what his government asserts is a $20 billion debt. The Cuban leadership stood firm on its position that Cuba sustained billions of dollars in damage because of the unilateral ending of bilateral long-term agreements by Russia in the early 1990s and that it owes the Russian government nothing.

The abrupt end in 1990-91 of aid from and preferential trade agreements with the Soviet Union and Eastern European workers states resulted in a sudden, brutal slashing of the standard of living in Cuba. Trade with the Soviet bloc countries had accounted for 85 percent of Cuba's foreign trade.

Because of the trade embargo and other aggressive policies imposed by Washington in the early 1960s as Cuba's socialist revolution deepened, much of the country's economic infrastructure in manufacturing and agriculture was built up through trade and aid with the Soviet Union. The disruption of these favorable relations caused widespread hardship and difficulties from which the Caribbean nation is slowly struggling its way out.

According to the New York Times, Putin pressed the Cuban government to recognize 30 percent of the debt claimed by Moscow and to agree to a schedule of payments under the system dictated by the imperialist-dominated "Paris Club" of creditor governments. The Russian delegation reportedly sought to secure stock positions in Cuban enterprises to "recover past investments."

Putin went out of his way to dispel any notion that his visit marked the renewal of a special alliance between the two countries. "Unfortunately, you have been looking at the wrong kind of information," he told reporters at a press conference at the end of the visit. "We have no union with Cuba against third countries, including the United States if you were talking about that country."

Putin called president-elect George W. Bush from Cuba, reportedly congratulating him on his electoral victory. He also pardoned as a "goodwill gesture" Edmond Pope, a former U.S. naval intelligence officer convicted in a Moscow court in December of espionage, ending what was to have been a 20-year sentence. From Cuba, Putin flew to Canada to pursue talks with the government there.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home