Could Putin get Cuba back by bailing out the Castro regime again?

americanthinker

Silvio Canto, Jr.

According to Charles Krauthammer, President Putin of Russia sees himself in very historic and transformational terms :

"He can already see the history textbooks: Catherine the Great took Crimea, Vlad (the Great?) won it back. Not bad for a 19th-century man."

I don't know if he is "Vlad the Great" but President Putin is like the offensive coordinator who keeps throwing the long pass and scoring.  He's concluded that the other side does not have much of a pass defense.  He keeps throwing and scoring.

There is one more piece to putting the empire together.  It is Cuba, the island 90 miles away from the US and a very nice warm spot for the Russian Navy to go around the world.

How does he get Cuba back?  The answer is money and Putting has plenty of that these days.  . 

First, he goes to Raul Castro and offers a lifeline. Cuba needs credit and would literally love "a sugar daddy" again.

Second, another round of Russian aid would keep the Castro brothers in power even longer.   It could replace the subsidized oil that they've been getting from Venezuela.  It would also draw the US's attention or give the Castro brothers the kind of relevance that they crave.

Third, they won't have to pay back all of those loans to Western countries.  Russia would take care of that, as it did between the Missile Crisis and the collapse of the USSR.   It's "Happy Days are here again" for the Castro dictatorship.

Again, Putin wants to put the empire back together and Castro needs a lifesaver.  It is the exactly the perfect storm that could put these two nations back together.

Yes, it is a long shot.  However, stranger things have happened.   After all, didn't Russia sign a memorandum in 1994 respecting Ukraine's borders?  Didn't we "reset" relations with Russia in 2009?

Yes, there is a "Twilight Zone" element to my post but stranger things have happened.

Russia Spy Vessel Arrives In Havana Without Warning. U.S. Sends Warning To Russia

Mary Greeley

Barco espia ruso en La Habana: Rusia establecería bases militares en Cuba y Venezuela

alguien ha escuchado alguna interjeccion al respecto por parte de obama, kerry o hagel?

------------------------

martinoticias

El buque de inteligencia CCB-175 “Viktor Leonov”, de la Marina de Guerra de Rusia, de visita en La Habana. (Reuters).

Rusia tiene la intención de ampliar su presencia militar permanente fuera de sus fronteras mediante la colocación de bases militares en varios países extranjeros, entre ellos Cuba, dijo este miércoles el ministro de Defensa, Sergei Shoigu.

Shoigu dijo que la lista incluye, además de Cuba, a Vietnam, Venezuela, Nicaragua, las Seychelles, Singapur y varios otros países.

"Las conversaciones están en marcha, y estamos a punto de firmar los documentos pertinentes", agregó Shoigu a periodistas en Moscú.

El ministro añadió que las negociaciones abarcan no sólo las bases militares, sino también las visitas a los puertos de esos países en condiciones favorables, así como la apertura de los sitios de abastecimiento de combustible para los bombarderos estratégicos rusos en patrulla.

Moscú tiene actualmente sólo una base naval fuera de la antigua Unión Soviética - en Tartus, Siria, pero el destino de esta instalación naval es incierto debido a la guerra civil en ese país.

Rusia postsoviética cerró una gran base naval en Vietnam y una base de radar en Cuba en el año 2002 debido a limitaciones financieras.

Sin embargo, Rusia ha comenzado a revivir su marina y la aviación estratégica desde mediados de la década de 2000, viéndolos como una herramienta para proyectar la imagen de Rusia en el extranjero y para proteger sus intereses nacionales en todo el mundo.

 

Ahora, Moscú necesita para colocar dichos activos militares en regiones estratégicamente importantes del mundo para hacer que funcionen de manera efectiva hacia la meta de expansión de la influencia global de Rusia.

 

Buque espía llega a La Habana

 

En ese contexto, el buque espía CCB-175 "Viktor Leonov", de la Flota Norte de la Marina de Guerra de Rusia, cumple una visita a La Habana sin que las autoridades cubanas comunistas informaran sobre su arribo.

 

El "Viktor Leonov", de 91,5 metros de largo y 14,5 metros de ancho, se encuentra anclado desde el martes en el muelle de cruceros del puerto de La Habana, situado a dos cuadras de la Catedral Ortodoxa Rusa, observaron periodistas de la AFP.

 

Este buque de reconocimiento, que navega con unos 200 tripulantes, entró en funciones en 1988 en la Flota del Mar Negro, pero siete años después fue transferido a la Flota del Norte, según medios noticiosos rusos.

 

Silencio absoluto en la Isla
 

Ni las autoridades ni la prensa cubanas han informado sobre la presencia del buque en La Habana, a diferencia de anteriores visitas de navíos de guerra de Rusia.

 

Así sucedió en agosto pasado, cuando arribó en "visita amistosa" una flotilla de la Marina de Guerra de Rusia encabezada por el crucero lanzamisiles "Moskva" (Moscú), que incluso pudo ser visitado por los cubanos en el Puerto de La Habana.

 

Moscú y La Habana fueron estrechos aliados durante 30 años durante la Guerra Fría, hasta la desaparición de la Unión Soviética hace dos décadas. Tras un distanciamiento durante el gobierno de Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999), reanudaron sus lazos políticos y económicos, así como la colaboración militar.

 

En diciembre de 2008, tres navíos de guerra rusos, encabezados por el destructor "Almirante Chabanenko", visitaron la isla 20 días después de que el entonces presidente ruso, Dimitri Medvedev, y el general Raúl Castro, relanzaran las relaciones bilaterales.

 

Estos fueron los primeros buques de guerra rusos que visitaban Cuba desde 1991.

Russian Antigay Ultranationalist Extradited From Cuba, Arrested

rferl.org

A Russian ultranationalist, Maksim Martsinkevich, has been arrested at a Moscow airport after his extradition from Cuba.

Martsinkevich -- also known as "Tesak" (Machete) -- last year founded a homophobic group, Occupy Pedophilia, whose aim was to "cure" homosexuals through humiliation and torture.

Several videos of Martsinkevich and his followers humiliating and beating gays circulated on the Internet in 2013.

Last month, a Moscow court sanctioned Martsinkevich's arrest in absentia on extremism charges.

Martsinkevich was detained by Cuban law enforcement agencies in Havana on January 17 for staying in the country without a valid visa for more than 30 days. He arrived in Moscow on January 27.

A spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, Viktoria Tsyplenkova, said Martsinkevich will be introduced to the charges against him and interrogated on January 28.

Arrestado en Cuba un dirigente de la extrema derecha rusa conocido por su acoso a presuntos pedófilos

EUROPA PRESS

  

twicsy.com

El activista de ultraderecha ruso Maxim Martsinkevich ha sido detenido en Cuba a petición de las autoridades rusas, que le acusan de un cargo de extremismo. Martsinkevich es conocido por los actos violentos y el acoso al que sometía a los sospechosos de perpetrar abuso a menores de edad.

   La Policía cubana ha informado a Rusia de la detención de Martsinkevich a través de Interpol, más conocido como 'Tesak', 'Machete', según recoge la agencia de noticias rusa RIA Novosti citando al Ministerio del Interior ucraniano.

   Un tribunal ruso dictó orden de detención contra Martsinkevich el pasado mes de diciembre, una decisión muy criticada por el propio sospechoso, que considera que está impulsada por el "lobby pedófilo". En una entrevista al periódico 'Life News', Martsinkevich aseguraba que no tenía intención de volver a Rusia.

   El propio Martsinkevich informaba el 9 de enero a través de su blog de que había viajado a Cuba desde Kiev, la capital Ucraniana, haciendo escala en Frankfurt.

   Martsinkevich fundó en 2011 el grupo Occupy Pedofilia, una organización que atraía con engaños a sospechosos de pedofilia, grababa los encuentros y después los colgaban en su página de Internet, donde cuenta con más de 130.000 seguidores. Sometían igualmente a acosos similares a hombres homosexuales.

   También dirigió el grupo ultranacionalista Format 18 y fue excarcelado en 2010 tras cumplir tres años y medio por incitación al odio.

Head of Russian Neo-Nazi, Anti-Gay Group Flees to Cuba

Maxim Martsinkevich  (Source:VK.com via Vocativ.com)

EDGE on the Net

By Jason St. Amand 

The leader of a neo-Nazi anti-gay Russian group, which tortures and humiliates LGBT youth, has fled to Cuba after spending months running away from authorities, news site Vocativ reports.

Maxim Martsinkevich, the leader of the anti-gay/neo-Nazi group "Occupy Paedophilia," first fled to Ukraine but has now settled in Cuba, according to a Wednesday interview with Russian news site Life News.

Martsinkevich recently took to VKontakte, a Russian social media site, to write that he fled to Cuba around Dec. 10. Vocativ reports that laws allow Russians to visit Cuba for up to 30 days if they do not have a visa. Martsinkevich apparently does not have a visa, which means he will have to stay in the country illegally or soon leave. Additionally, Martsinkevich, known as "Teask" (Russian for the cleaver), says he doesn’t have the money to fly home, however.

On Christmas Martsinkevic wrote a plea on his VKontakte account:

"Attention! Official dispatch from Freedom Island (i.e. Cuba)!
An offer regarding the investigation and trial.

The case against me is very unusual. There are no victims. No damages. The investigation was done by incompetents. The crimes were committed virtually. I was charged without being present. I was arrested in absentia.

Contrary to Interpol statutes, there has been an international arrest warrant issued in my name. I do not recognize my guilt. I am currently in Latin America and do not have the money to return to Russia.

Given the above and thinking logically, I ask the following:

To hold the questioning and trial in the open for the mass media to observe, with me being present via Skype. In case of conviction, I offer to serve the prison term virtually, by placing an avatar behind bars for the amount of time designated by the court.

That would be fair and just, and would help bring about legal innovation.
If you agree, repost this message.

Sincerely, Maxim Martsinkevich"

Maxim Martsinkevich  (Source:VK.com via Vocativ.com)

Martsinkevich also posted an image of himself behind bars with the caption: "Russia’s Neo-Nazi poster boy asks for help."

Vocativ reports that the Russian government charged him "with extremism in early November."

Martsinkevich and his group made international headlines for luring LGBT teens via social network websites, then torturing and humiliating them. Members of "Occupy Paedophilia" allegedly bullied their victims while recording them - sometimes in public during the day. Clips of the abuse were then posted online in order to out the teens to their family, friends and schools.

In one incident that occurred in November, the group attacked a gay contestant from Ukraine’s "X Factor" show. According to reports, Martsinkevich attacked Alexander Bohun, beating him repeatedly, threatening him with violence and forced him to make a series of false statements while being recorded.

"I was referred to as ’pedophile’ illegally, mocked, and forced to admit actions and desires that I have not committed in any circumstances, and I had to admit all that publicly," Bohun said.

Bohun’s lawyer, Elena Kherson, says Martsinkevich broke the law by accusing another man of a crime without an instigation or trial.

Maxim Martsinkevich  (Source:VK.com via Vocativ.com)

"There is no evidence of the involvement of Alexander Bohun, in the crime of which ’Slasher’ accused him," she said. "And most importantly, he [Bohun] is the victim." The clip shows Martsinkevich shaving Bohun’s head, painting it with a rainbow marker and then apparently makes him drink a cup of urine and pours urine over his head.

"Basically I would not kill you because you’re gay," Martsenkevich reportedly says in the video. "I would send you to a concentration camp, organize parades for gays there, dress you as a woman, and make you sing songs. Take a good care of you."

Martsinkevich and group made waves again in November when they lured and kidnappeda 20-year-old gay exchange student from Swaziland, Africa. The student, only known as "David Smith," was stripped and interrogated about his sexuality. He was slapped and taunted and the members of the group shaved his head. He was also forced to kiss and dance with a watermelon, which was later shoved in his face.

The victim, however, was returned to his native country in November, according to officials from Swaziland.

Vocativ reports that charges of extremism Martsinkevich currently faces are for inciting hatred and "humiliating human dignity" under Article 282 of the Russian criminal code. He could be sentenced to five years in prison.

It’s unknown of Russia’s highly controversial "homosexual propaganda" laws will impact Martsinkevich’s case.

Russia signs deal to forgive $29 billion of Cuba's Soviet era debt

Chicago Tribune

Marc Frank Reuters

2:57 p.m. CST, December 9, 2013

HAVANA (Reuters) - Russia and Cuba have quietly signed an agreement to write off 90 percent of Cuba's $32 billion debt to the defunct Soviet Union, a deal that ends a 20-year squabble and opens the way for more investment and trade, Russian and European diplomats said.

The two sides announced an agreement to settle the debt dispute earlier this year and finalized the deal in Moscow in October. It would have Cuba pay $3.2 billion over 10 years in exchange for Russia forgiving the rest of a $32 billion debt - $20 billion plus service and interest, the diplomats said.

It must still be approved by the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

Negotiations on the form in which Cuba will pay the remaining debt are ongoing, the diplomats said, as even $320 million per year represents a large sum for the cash-strapped country, which has labored under a U.S. economic embargo for decades.

Cuba's total export earnings are around $18 billion, including tourism and medical and educational services.

Neither Cuba nor Russia has made any official comment on the debt agreement. Cuban officials were not immediately available for comment.

Cuba defaulted on its debt in the late 1980s but recently has been trying to restructure the old debts to improve its international credibility.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, during a visit to Cuba in February, signed a general agreement to work out a formula and settle the old debt by next year. The decision rankled other countries grouped in the Paris Club of creditor nations because it broke ranks with the collective approach of the organization.

PARIS CLUB CONTACTS

The Paris Club is an informal group of creditor governments including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as a number of smaller European nations.

The Paris Club reported that Cuba owed its members $35 billion at the close of 2012, now estimated at around $37 billion, which would leave the island owing $5 billion to $6 billion of non-Soviet debt to the club's members.

The organization has a Cuba working group, which does not include the United States.

Russia pledged to work with Cuba towards reaching an agreement with the Paris Club as part of the October settlement, one Russian diplomat said.

"The Paris Club should be grateful as it removes a huge amount of money from the table and makes an eventual agreement more likely," he said.

While some Paris Club members clearly preferred a united front, one European diplomat said Russia's help in settling Paris Club debt could prove important and that a reduced debt would indeed be more easily negotiable.

Since the Medvedev visit, the Paris Club has put out feelers to the Cubans and a few months ago two representatives traveled to the Caribbean island to meet with the central bank, the first such visit in over a decade.

Unlike the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, from which Cuba is excluded under the longstanding U.S. trade embargo, the Paris Club does not issue multilateral loans.

Cuba releases very little information about its foreign debt.

Last month the government reported its "active" foreign debt, accumulated after it declared a default in the late 1980s, as $13.6 billion in 2010. The government no longer reports its "passive" debt from before the default and estimated at around $8 billion.

Elsa Morejón entrega INFORMALMENTE el Proyecto Emilia a Obama

mientras el regimen recupera su aviacion comercial a cambio de favores especiales en la zona franca de mariel a putin, obtiene nuevas lineas de credito del brasil de dilma y lula, retiene arbitrariamente en cuba al dr. oscar elias biscet y su esposa le entrega informalmente al presidente obama el proyecto "emilia", este despliega su agenda "apeturista" con iran dejando de lado a israel y "actualiza" la politica respecto al regimen del general de hojalata ante los "cambios" que se despliegan, envia secretamente a un par de closers a la base naval de guantanamo a preparar su cierre.

las conversaciones para equiparar al secuestrado alan gross con los 4 espias cubanos en prisiones federales que permitan su intercambio avanzan y el regimen de la rinconada seguramente ya tendra preparado un proyecto de colaboracion conjunto respecto a la futura exbase militar. 

 

Cuba about to order 10 more jets from Russia

An-158

CUBA STANDARD — Apparently using its leverage with close allies in Latin America, Cuba is expanding a previous order of three An-158 jets with Antonov Design Bureau, negotiating delivery of 10 jets, Russia’s Komersant daily reported.

Quoting Antonov’s Deputy General Designer, Alexander Keeva, the newspaper said the Cuban government has reached an agreement in principle with the Ukrainian aircraft maker and Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Co., and that the three sides are “getting close” to signing a final agreement.

Flag carrier Cubana de Aviación this year began operating three new An-158 jets ordered in 2011, on routes from Havana to  Santiago, Guantánamo, Holguín, Nassau, Santo Domingo, Cancún and Caracas.

During delivery of the third jet at an airshow in Moscow in August, Cuba reportedly signed an order for the leasing of three more of the Ukrainian-made mid-range aircraft. The three additional An-158 were scheduled for delivery in 2014. Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Co. will finance the three aircraft under an agreement with Roseximbank.

Now, Cuba is apparently negotiating delivery of seven more An-158 jets.

Cubana, Antonov and Ilyushin Finance just completed high-altitude tests with a Cubana An-158 jet in Ecuador and Bolivia. The two Andean countries, both close allies of Cuba, apparently have expressed interest in purchasing the jets as well.

“During this expedition, following demands of potential customers from the region, Antonov … and its partner Ilyushin Finance … conduct the airplane tests under conditions of alpine airfields,” Antonov said in a press release Nov. 15. “This expedition is an important constituent to promote the aircraft of the AN−148/AN−158 family into the market of Latin America.”

Keep reading on cubastandard >>

Al asalto de Cuba uno de los hombres mas poderosos del mundo

el ruso igor sechin, presidente de la petrolera estatal rusa rosneft, a quien forbes ubica en la posicion 72 entre las personas más poderosas del mundo, en tanto la prensa rusa le otorga la 42, desembarca en la'bana para garantizar la parte rusa del pastel que esta repartiendo el terrateniente de biran. mr. sechin se considera que es el presidente mejor pagado de una empresa estatal con un salario anual de 50 millones de dolares, constituyendo el modelo sonado que aspira a seguir la nomenklatura kubiche neo y postcastrista. 

la nota oficial del granma de su encuentro con el general de hojalata aqui >>

Castro Studies "Putinismo" to Survive

capitolhillcubans

www.putinforever.com

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady in The Wall Street Journal:

Cuba Studies 'Putinismo' for Survival Tips

If Havana uses a Russian recipe for clinging to power, investors beware.

Vladimir Putin's op-ed in the New York Times wasn't a big hit with Americans. But the Russian president does have admirers elsewhere. Some are in the Cuban military, which is rumored to be studying "putinismo." Would-be foreign investors, take note.

Ever since Fidel Castro's glorious revolution triumphed in 1959, Cuba has been in need of a benefactor. The Soviet Union played that role until it collapsed in the early 1990s. Cuba got another lifeline when Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, elected in 1998, began a state policy of providing it with cheap oil.

Even so, Cubans still live lives of privation. Venezuela's own fiscal woes are on the rise, which means that the oil subsidies are in jeopardy.

Revolutionary poverty is nothing new. But regime bigwigs in Havana fear that Raúl Castro, who is now in charge, could face serious social unrest when the ailing 87-year-old Fidel passes on. Their challenge is to find ways to feed the island without letting go of power, which might prove fatal for some of them.

The Putin model offers a way out. It permits nominal elections in which the opposition gets some seats in the parliament. On the economic front, Mr. Putin has created a loyal cadre of oligarchs who do business with foreigners.

The former KGB operative can say that Russia is no longer shaped by communist ideology. But behind the scenes, putinismo blends authoritarian political control and crony capitalism to produce a lock on power.

Writing from Russia in April 2012, development economist Deepak Lal described this mix of profits for the politically correct and repression for everybody else. His essay, in the Indian daily Business Standard, explained that "ordinary profit making has been criminalized." Citing the work of Russian lawyer Vladimir Radchenko, Mr. Lal wrote that "there are three million small and medium-scale business entrepreneurs in jail for economic crimes."

Mr. Putin is reportedly planning on forming his own personal national guard, Mr. Lal wrote. The Federal Security Service is more interested in running businesses than putting down dissidents and the hoodlums hired to do the job are unreliable. Mr. Lal also briefly described the state's renewed alliance with the Orthodox Church.

I was reminded of the parallels between Mr. Putin's Russia and Castro's promises of reform when former Cuban political prisoner Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez visited the Journal's New York offices this month. The 48-year-old Cuban, who spent 17 years in Castro's jails, calls claims of political and economic reform there "fraud."

Mr. Antúnez describes opposition to the regime as widespread and growing. It is not more visible, he says, because the "culture of fear" remains intense. Independent reports from the island say that detentions and violent assaults on opposition groups have been increasing.

As in Russia, Cuba can no longer rely on the armed forces to control government critics. They are busy running lucrative businesses in tourism, retail, cigar manufacturing and air travel. The Castros also seem to have a Putin-style relationship with the Church. Pope Benedict met with the Castros during his 2012 visit to the island while dissidents were carted off to jail for asking to see the pontiff.

Mr. Antúnez says that allowing Cubans to run microenterprises isn't reducing poverty. Perhaps that's because when entrepreneurs have succeeded during prior so-called liberalization periods, the regime has accused them of the crime of illicit enrichment.

Foreign investors sometimes don't seem to fare much better. In an Aug. 13 letter to the Economist magazine, British businessman Stephen Purvis, a former business partner of the regime, described the circumstances surrounding his incarceration in a Cuban jail for 15 months between 2011 and 2012.

Mr. Purvis says he was "accused of many things, starting with revelations of state secrets" but was eventually sentenced for "breaches of financial regulations," even though Cuba's central bank had "specifically approved the transactions in question for 12 years."

He was in prison with "a handful" of other foreign businessmen and says "there are many more in the system than is widely known." A few are charged with corruption, he wrote, but many face charges of "sabotage, damage to the economy, tax avoidance and illegal economic activity."

What he didn't see in prison were his island business peers from Brazil, Venezuela and China. Mr. Purvis asks: "Why is the representative of Ericsson in jail for exactly the same activities as [its] Chinese competitor who is not?" Foreigners doing business in Russia have described a similarly risky playing field.

In May, Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who claims to have contact with a number of Cuban military officers from his high school days, told the Miami Herald that they are studying "putinismo" in order to prepare for a transition. "They don't want to suffer the same fate as the followers of [Libya's] Kaddafi," he said.

The Putin model may be the way to avoid that fate. But it's a far cry from a plan to liberate the nation.

Want to do Business in Cuba?: Foreign Investors Learn Hard (Albeit Late) Lessons

capitolhillcubans

Bill Browder was -- until recently -- Russia's largest foreign investor.

Until he learned a hard lesson (below) about doing business with tyrants.

Now Browder is Putin's biggest foreign foe.

This is akin to British businessman Steven Purvis' experience in Cuba, where he was -- until recently -- one of Castro's most important business partners, until one day he found himself arbitrarily imprisoned and with all his assets illegally confiscated.

Now Purvis is warning other potential foreign investors about the dangers of doing business with Castro.

Of course, it would have been nice if Browder and Purvis would have consulted with their conscience before making billions for Putin and Castro. 

But better late than never.

(A good lesson for advocates of lifting U.S. sanctions.)

Excerpt from this weekend's Financial Times:

Bill Browder has a stark warning for western investors eyeing opportunities in Russia. “They are not only taking a financial risk – they are taking a very serious personal risk of being arrested or dying,” he says. The same applies to educated Russians: “Even Russians who have the ability and language skills should get out of Russia, because it is only going one way and that is in a very horrible direction.”

Browder should know: his experience over the past two decades provides a spectacular example. During that time, the head of Hermitage Capital Management – at one point one of the largest foreign investors into the country – has gone from staunchly rejecting what he once called western myths about Russia to being a crusader against President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Browder’s next goal is to persuade the British, Dutch, German and Swedish governments, as well as the EU, to pass their own versions of the Magnitsky law. For him such laws have not become ends in themselves but a way of putting pressure on the Putin regime. “It is my expectation that the Magnitsky Act, by freezing assets and banning visas, will become the new policy tool that the west uses not just in this case but in all terrible cases coming out of Russia.”

Browder views those western leaders who refuse to take a harsh line on Russia with disdain. This is particularly true of the British government for its failure to order a public inquiry into the death by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer who had taken refuge in the UK.

Cuba to assemble Russian minibuses

siguen repitiendo virtualmente sin variaciones el diseno de los cajones "girones" que transportaban a los becarios en las decadas de los 70 y 80, montados ademas en los mismos chasis con esos motores de gasolina que hacen 3-4 km/ litro. es la filosofia de la ingenieria bola: si algo funciona dejalo asi mismo, no importa que ese algo sea una porqueria. los terratenientes de kubichilandia se aprovechan y "resuelven" el cuello de botella por 1-2 anos, que luego vendra otro kuadro a hacerse cargo de la nueva crisis. los empresarios bolos creen firmemente en que reencontraron el mercado eterno para sus antidiluvianos artefactos y puede que tengan razon por el momento, en definitiva putin es el garante de los acuerdos comerciales y asumira puntualmente los incumplimientos del cronograma de pagos de los kubiches y todo el mundo happy.

--------------------- 

Cuba Standard

Assembled in Cuba: One of the first Diana buses

CUBA STANDARD — Cuba will begin assembly of minibuses, using chassis and other components from Russia’s GAZ Group.

Nizhny Novgorod-based GAZ will deliver 330 PAZ-32053 chassis to the island by the end of this year, the company said in a press release. GAZ said it has already delivered 210 of the PAZ chassis to Cuba and plans to deliver 120 more by the end of the year.

The Cuban model based on the PAZ chassis will be called Diana. A Cuban state company will provide warranty and maintenance of the buses; GAZ will supply spare parts.

CAISA, a subsidiary of state company Grupo Unecamoto, assembles minibuses in a joint venture with Brazil’s Busscar at Guanajay, in suburban Havana.

Cuban mechanics and engineers are familiar with the technology. Using a similar, Soviet-designed chassis, a Cuban state company and the predecessor of GAZ Group assembled 15,000 Girón minibuses in the 1970s on the island.

The Cuba agreement is part of a GAZ Group export expansion.

Cuba buys Russian passenger trains

cubastandard

Muromteplovoz SV-10 train set

CUBA STANDARD — In the first massive purchase of passenger rolling stock in decades, Cuban state rail company Unión de Ferrocarriles de Cuba (UFC) ordered 300 two-car shuttles from Russian rail manufacturer OAO Muromteplovoz, International Railway Journal reported.

Over the past five years, UFC has bought at least 164 DF7G-C diesel-electric engines from China Northern Rail Corp. Ltd. as part of a general overhaul of the island’s decaying rail system; most of the Chinese locomotives are pulling freight trains. The Russian order rivals the Chinese one in size.

According to Russian press reports, the first 17 sets of Russian-made SV-10 diesel shuttles have already been shipped to the island. The remaining 283 in the contract will be assembled at a Cuban plant near Matanzas, cutting the cost for Cuba in half; Cuban technicians are being trained in Murom, west-central Russia.
The simple design of the SV-10 is based on Soviet-era track maintenance vehicles. The 100km/h SV-10 train sets can seat nearly 100 passengers, according to Muromteplovoz.

According to International Railway Journal, the first sets will be used on a new line connecting the port of Mariel with Havana; the line is under construction.

Increased sex ratio in Russia and Cuba after Chernobyl: a radiological hypothesis

ehjournal

Hagen Scherb (scherb@helmholtz-muenchen.de)

Ralf Kusmierz (ralf.kusmierz@bremen.de)

Kristina Voigt (kvoigt@helmholtz-muenchen.de

Synoptic analysis of Russian and Cuban secular sex ratio trends

We compare the sex ratio trends of Cuba (1958 – 2011) and Russia (1959 – 2010) and

quantify pertinent effect-parameters of those trends, especially the jumps in 1987. The

relevant annual births figures by gender are presented in Table 2 (for the original data sources

see: http://www.one.cu/anuariodemografico2011.htm, http://data.euro.who.int/hfadb/, and

http://www.mortality.org). Sex ratio in Russia follows an overall linear decline from 1959 to

1986 with a reduction per 10 years of 0.12% (0.04, 0.20), p value 0.0021 (Figure 2). We may

estimate a significant jump of the sex ratio from 1986 to 1987 of 0.51% (

0.28, 0.75), p value< 0.0001. From 1987 onward, there is a long-term sex ratio increase to

maximum values in 1999/2000 of nearly 1.065 and a subsequent decline after the year 2000. A parsimonious model for the partial Russian sex ratio trend after Chernobyl is a 2

nd degree polynomial, i.e. anparabola with p value < 0.0001. If the decline starting in 2000 will continue linearly and undisturbed, the Russian sex ratio is to resume normal pre Chernobyl

values near 1.05 beyond the year 2020. Sex ratio in Cuba from 1958 to 1986 follows an essentially constant trend with no strong overall upward or downward tendency before Chernobyl

(Figure 3). In Cuba, we may estimate a jump in 1987 of 2.99%; (2.39, 3.60), p value < 0.0001, which is six times the jump estimate of the Russian sex ratio in 1987. Moreover, there are still even stronger increases in Cuba in 1995 and 1996 exceeding a sex ratio of 1.15. A well-fitting,

however less parsimonious model for the partial Cuban sex ratio trend after Chernobyl

consists of a 3rd degree polynomial adjusted for the extreme values in 1995 and 1996. This

model approaches nearly normal pre-Chernobyl values of 1.06 around the year 2010. It is,

therefore, quite obvious that in Cuba and Russia the sex ratio trends that had existed before

the Chernobyl accident are markedly disturbed immediately afterChernobyl albeit the

temporal patterns of the sex ratio changes as well as the maximum values taken on differ considerably between the two countries.

Keep reading at  http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/1476-069X-12-63.pdf

Cuban Airline Gets Russian Plane

The Moscow Times

The main Cuban airline has taken delivery of an Antonov-158 passenger jet, a Russian leasing company said Thursday.

It's the second of three Antonov-158 planes, which seat 97 people, that Cubana de Aviacion ordered from the state-controlled company, Ilyushin Finance said.

The plane has a list price of $25 million to $30 million, depending on furnishing. Ukrainian aircraft maker Antonov sources about 60 percent of its parts in Russia.

Some components come from France, Germany and the U.S. in a way that does not violate U.S. sanctions against Cuba, the Aviation Explorer industry website reported.

Antonov performs the final assembly of the machines from knockdown kits manufactured at a Russian plant in Voronezh.

The first Antonov-158 arrived in Cuba in April, while the third will enter into service later this year. Panama's South American Aircraft Leasing company is an intermediary in the plane deal.

Cubana wants to use the jets on its domestic flights and to ferry people to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Ilyushin Finance earlier supplied seven other aircraft to Cuba: four medium-range Russian-made Tupolev-204 planes and three long-range Ilyushin-96-300 planes.

The latest and previous deals took place with the support of the government, whose VEB bank lends money for buyers of Russian hi-tech products as part of a state program to boost their exports.

Cuba-Russia's "Obsolete" Weapons Sales to Syria

capitolhillcubans

Great point by The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson:

Diplomats have long employed disingenuous turns of phrase to avoid conceding inconvenient and sometimes self-evident truths that could compromise or embarrass their nations. While artfulness is preferred, bald-faced lying is also part of the protocol. When the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says, for instance, as he has been wont to over the past year, that Russian arms shipments to Syria’s Assad régime are not offensive in nature and mere obligatory fulfillments of old standing orders—made long before the country’s civil war—he is, most likely, lying.

It is difficult to know, as yet, just why Cuba would have wished to secretly load two MiG-21 fighter jets, fifteen MiG engines, and two anti-aircraft missile systems of Soviet vintage onto a North Korean cargo ship, the Chong Chon Gang, which then concealed that cargo underneath ten thousand tons of Cuban brown sugar. But the explanation that Cuba’s foreign ministry quickly offered on Tuesday, a day after the ship’s dramatic seizure by suspicious Panamanian authorities at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, was somewhere between decidedly strange and scarcely believable. The cargo was indeed Cuba’s, said the foreign-ministry communique, consisting of “obsolete defensive weapons” which was being sent to North Korea for “repair.” If the Chong Chon Gang’s mission was as prosaic as that, then it’s captain certainly overreacted when, as the Panamanians boarded his vessel, he attempted to commit suicide by cutting his own throat, while his crewmen mounted a resistance against their captors.

Check out the language used by Lavrov at the time.  

Sound familiar?

From AFP:

Russia's foreign minister said Friday he did not understand the international uproar created by Moscow's continuing weapons cooperation with regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I do not understand why the media is trying to create a sensation out of this," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We have not hidden that we supply weapons to Syria under signed contracts, without violating any international agreements, or our own legislation."

Lavrov said during a joint press appearance in Sochi with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Russia only supplied defence weapons that could not alter the outcome of the 26-month conflict between Assad's forces and the opposition.

"We are first and foremost supplying defence weapons related to air defence," Lavrov said in televised comments.

"This does not in any way alter the balance of forces in this region or give any advantage in the fight against the opposition," he stressed.

Destination Cuba: Alongside empty seat 17A

Photographers Blog

By Maxim Shemetov

I’ve never been to Cuba before. Frankly speaking, today is my first visit. It’s a very short one of only 24 hours, of which now I have only half left to walk around Old Havana and to swim in the ocean while the global hysteria over the uncatchable Edward Snowden carries on.

For me, this story started on Sunday when I woke up and slowly went to the office. It was supposed to be a usual working weekend when almost nothing happens. Almost… Incoming calls suddenly started to light up my cell phone. The big story with Snowden as the lead actor flying somewhere via Moscow began. It is hard to describe all of the next 24 hours spent in the airport, with expensive tickets booked to get inside the transit zone at Sheremetyevo and disappointment that a lot of energy was wasted on information that turned out to be wrong.

The next morning I headed to the airport again to take the same flight as Snowden. It looked suspicious that everyone knew when and how a top secret target was going to leave Russia. The flight number, even the fugitive’s seat on the plane, was known 24 hours ahead of departure! I met around 30 reporters flying to Cuba near gate 28. All were filming a newly arrived plane while arguing with airport security.

An hour and a half before the flight, security blocked the gate and the windows, brought in tables and metal detectors to check all passengers who wanted to get aboard. “The situation is extraordinary, stop shooting if you don’t want to be kicked off the plane,” a policeman said with anger. People were starting to get nervous and security blocked the way to the gate. I didn’t even try to get my professional camera out, shooting on an iPhone and feeling an angry look from a security guard pretending to be a regular passenger. I smiled stupidly and pretended nothing had happened.

Boarding was delayed for a while. Row 17, where Snowden was expected to be seated, was full with cameras and Aeroflot staff. Ordinary passengers asked flight attendants to be re-seated. All were closely watching everyone getting aboard. It was 2:10 pm and the flight was being delayed. A flight attendant ran past us murmuring “Only three left, there is no Snowden among them”. People were stuck in their nervousness and hysteria was at its peak. All ended within 15 minutes when the flight attendant closed the door and the plane started to move.

Seat 17A was empty. Someone started to applaud, someone was smiling. Half of business class, and a quarter of economy class, was taken up by reporters. I managed to take a couple of frames of the empty seat which became a story in itself with the lack of Snowden. I transmitted it just before the plane started to taxi. I see now that it became a key picture in the story and was widely published by many newspapers and online. Aeroflot received wonderful PR and a nice increase in sales. We opened a small bottle of whiskey and blessed Snowden who gifted us this trip to Cuba.

I only have eight hours left here and I need to get a taxi and have a swim in the ocean.

No sign of leaker Snowden on Moscow-Cuba flight as Ecuador considers asylum bid

 

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WikiLeaks says it helped Edward Snowden leave Hong Kong [Moscow-Havana]

 

An Aeroflot representative told Fox News that Snowden was on a flight to Moscow, which landed Sunday afternoon. The airline also said a ticket had been purchased in Snowden's name for another Aeroflot flight Monday to Cuba, but it is unclear what Snowden's final destination will be.

His departure came a day after the United States made a formal request for his extradition and warned Hong Kong against delaying the process of returning him to face trial in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/23/obama-administration-confirms-talking-to-hong-kong-about-snowden/#ixzz2X4864Lir