Putin steps on Washington's toes

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, DEC. 12. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, will visit Cuba and Canada this week, bypassing the United States, in another sign of the Kremlin's new assertive foreign policy.

Mr. Putin's trip to Cuba will be the first by a Russian leader since the Soviet President, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, visited Havana in 1989. Mr. Putin's predecessor, Mr. Boris Yeltsin, preoccupied with forging ``strategic partnership'' with Washington, turned his back on the former Caribbean ally.

Bilateral trade has slumped to just under $1 billion, a fraction of what it was in the 1980's, when the Soviet Union used to meet nearly all of Cuba's needs in weapons, oil, chemicals, metals and machinery in exchange for sugar, citrus fruits, nickel and cobalt.

Mr. Putin goes to Havana to rebuild not only economic, but also defence ties. The Russian Defence Minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, will accompany Mr. Putin and a Russian military news agency quoted a Defence Ministry source in Moscow as saying that arms trade would be ``one of the most important subjects'' during the talks in Havana.

``Both sides no longer have a reason to limit future contacts in the military sphere,'' the source said, adding that the mood in the Kremlin ``creates conditions to re-arm the Cuban army.''

Washington is clearly irked by Moscow's bold stepping into American turf, especially at a time when the U.S. is in presidential election limbo. ``The timing of the trip is ruffling feathers in the outgoing Clinton administration,'' The Washington Post wrote last week.

However, Moscow has made it clear it is not going to take American concerns into account. The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, said it was time to ``combine efforts to get over a slump'' in Russian-Cuban ties.

Mr. Putin is taking with him to Havana his Atomic Energy Minister, Mr. Yevgeny Adamov, to discuss Russian assistance in finishing a Soviet-built nuclear reactor at Juragua, which the U.S. regards as a security threat.

``Moscow has not yet dared help build a reactor on an island just 60 miles south of U.S. shores,'' an AFP news agency report said.

Mr. Putin is also taking a proposal to help Cuba finish a nickel ore processing plant, whose output can be used to repay Havana's multibillion debt to Russia.

From Cuba, Mr. Putin flies to Canada, which Washington regards as its backyard. ``Taking into account the current (presidential election) situation in the United States, it reminds me of a cavalry raid into the adversary's rear lines,'' said Mr. Vladimir Lukin, a Deputy Speaker in the State Duma, the lower House of the Russian Parliament, and a former Russian ambassador in Washington.

Moscow insists that Mr. Putin's agenda in Montreal will be purely economic, but analysts said Canada's restrained position on U.S. anti-missile defence plans and calls for ending the economic blockade against Cuba were important factors behind Mr. Putin's visit.

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Section  : International
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