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.
Rubio spoke about Cuba’s allyship with Russia, saying the regime hosts “Russia and Chinese intelligence.”
“Cuba has consistently posed a threat to the national security of the United States, and the other thing that poses a threat to the national security of the United States is to have a failed state 90 miles from our shores run by friends of our adversaries,” Rubio said from Miami on Thursday.
In contrast, the U.S. has for years sought to target the island’s leadership through a sweeping sanctions regime and trade embargo, due to concerns about the lack of political, economic, and social freedom the Cuban public is afforded under Communist leadership.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has ratcheted up pressure on Cuba to adopt democratic reforms, cutting off the oil supply the island was receiving from Venezuela, and issuing an executive order authorizing tariffs against any third-party countries that supply Havana with oil. The move prompted Russia to tighten its relationship with its communist ally, with Moscow sending Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel shipments of oil to blunt the blockade’s impact.
“Cuba continues to be the target of brutal economic pressure from the United States,” Zakharova, the Russian spokeswoman, said this week. “The new restrictions imposed by the White House in early May against third-country companies operating on the island of freedom are the latest round of Washington’s pressure policy, the primary goal of which is to strangle Cuba economically.”
Washington has openly floated regime change on the island, sparking promises from Diaz-Canel that he and the public will give their lives “for the revolution.” President Donald Trump has teased a “friendly takeover,” though he has indicated that he does not believe it will require military intervention.
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Rubio, the son of Cubans who left their homeland for the U.S. decades ago, issued the latest update on Cuba-U.S. policy earlier this week, when he seemed to make an implicit call on the country to rise against Communist leadership. The secretary of state issued a five-minute video message in Spanish, speaking directly to the Cuban public and outlining a path to democracy in the country. The U.S. could supply Cuba $100 million in aid, he said, but suggested the aid would only come if GAESA, the military-business conglomerate founded by Raul Castro that exerts sweeping control over residents, is overthrown.
“In the United States, we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our peoples and our countries, and right now the only thing standing in the way of a better future is those who control your country,” Rubio said. “Today, Cuba is not controlled by any revolution. Today’s Cuba is controlled by GAESA, a ‘state within the state’ that is accountable to no one, that hoards the profits of its businesses for the benefit of a small elite group. And the only role played by the so‑called ‘government’ is to demand that you continue making ‘sacrifices’ and repressing anyone who dares to complain.”