Russia close to granting Cuba 38 million euro loan to buy arms

[Judi Lynn]

NOVEMBER 2, 2018 / 8:20 AM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
Russia close to granting Cuba 38 million euro loan to buy arms
Denis Pinchuk, Andrew Osborn
3 MIN READ

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is close to agreeing a 38-million-euro loan to Cuba to help it buy Russian-made arms, a deputy finance minister said on Friday, after President Vladimir Putin met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Moscow.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper had previously reported that Moscow planned to grant Cuba a loan of more than $50 million to allow it to buy Russian hardware such as tanks, armoured vehicles and possibly military helicopters.

Under Putin, Russia has sought to revive relations and deepen its influence in Latin America, particularly with countries wary of U.S. influence such as Cuba where friendly ties with Moscow date back to the Soviet era.

Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said a Cuban military delegation would visit Russia in two weeks when he expected a loan-for-hardware deal to be signed. Russian news agencies reported that Cuban Defence Minister General Leopoldo Cintra Frias would be part of the delegation.

More:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-cuba/russia-close-to-granting-cuba-38-million-euro-loan-to-buy-arms-idUKKCN1N71IF?rpc=401&

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142192637

[GatoGordo]

1. It's a gift. Not a loan.

1. Cuba has no way of paying back Russia. It can't put food on the plates of Cubans, and it exports raw sugar, black market pharmaceuticals** and fake doctors. FOR CASH.

2. The "military hardware" is hardly state of the art. Vintage by current standards, as $50 million doesn't get a lot these days. (I am not sure who the Castroists think is going to invade them after 60 years of embargo... Dominican Republic???)

3. Venezuela has run out of tarry oil to send Cuba, despite Cuba's influence with Chavismo. That channel has closed.

But, if influence is what Russia wants, it isn't hard to con the Castroists. Give them some shiny trinkets...



**The internet is awash with websites offering "high praise" for Cuban medical and pharma prowess. Naturally, these websites are run by the Castroists.

[GatoGordo]

2. All symbolism. No substance

https://www.cubanet.org/destacados/cuba-armamento-armas-comprar-castrismo-rusia/

Translated from Spanish

-SNIP-

Now, beyond the suspicions and the resentments -not exactly unfounded- that the intermittent idylls between the Kremlin and the Palace of the Revolution can awaken us, a credit of 50 million dollars is an absolutely ridiculous figure if it is a question of a "rearmament". Suffice it to note the real costs of current military technology to conclude that the aforementioned figure would barely reach to replace the exhaust pipes of some obsolete armor from the brand new Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

In other words, it is absurd to seriously believe that with such a meager loan Cuba can acquire modern military equipment and materiel, especially when the Russian side lists a fabulous list of potential purchases for its miserable Caribbean allies: tanks, armored vehicles, ships (not we know if aerial or marine) and maybe even helicopters. Technologies that, objectively, it would be possible to buy for 50 million dollars only if they were pieces of World War II.

-SNIP-

This is called "saving face". The Russians want to get in good with Cuba (historical enemy of the last 60 years of the US) while zinging Uncle Sam, and Cuba gets to say "look what the Revolution paid for!" without actually paying for anything.

In reality, Cuba will "purchase" (be gifted) Soviet-era small arms in another attempt to quiet any sort of civil unrest on the home front.