RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev wrapped up a week-long tour of Latin America yesterday with a meeting with Fidel Castro designed to restore an alliance and cement his country’s position in the region.
The Russian leader earlier met Raul Castro, who succeeded his ailing older brother as Cuba’s president in February, and signed deals on nickel mining and oil exploration. In a display of bonhomie, the two presidents toured Havana’s historical sights arm in arm. “It has been a magnificent visit and now he will see Fidel,” Raul shouted to TV cameras.
The one-night stop in Havana was the final leg of Mr Medvedev’s week-long Latin America tour, a visit to open business opportunities for Russian companies and show Moscow could operate in the US backyard amid tension over Washington’s involvement in eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
“One must admit, to put it simply, we have never had a serious presence here [in Latin America]. These have been just episodes,” Mr Medvedev told reporters. His stops in Peru, Brazil and Venezuela showed Moscow’s determination to become a regional player, he said.
Analysts said Raul Castro, more pragmatic than his brother, would stop short of military or other co-operation with Moscow that could sabotage Havana’s hopes of a softer US policy under an Obama administration.
Mr Medvedev had travelled from Venezuela, where he and President Hugo Chávez oversaw joint naval exercises as tensions between Moscow and Washington simmer over US missile defence plans in Europe and Russia’s brief war with Georgia.
Moscow was Havana’s main benefactor during the Cold War, but the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union battered Cuba’s economy. – (Guardian service, Reuters)