Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was one of the few foreign leaders to visit Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Cuba and Russia have close ties. After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, diplomatic relations were established between Cuba and the Soviet Union. Cuba relied on Soviet markets and military aid and was a key ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“The Soviet Union and later Russia have always supported the Cuban people in their struggle for independence and sovereignty,” Putin said at the start of his meeting with Diaz-Canel today. “They always resisted various kinds of restrictions, restrictions, blockades.”
Putin welcomed that today Cuba “takes the same position as our country”.
The two leaders unveiled a statue of Fidel Castro, who led Cuba for nearly 50 years, in Moscow. Diaz-Canel lashed out at the “American imperialism” Castro had always hated. “Russia and Cuba face unjustified and arbitrary sanctions, and both countries have a common enemy, the Yankee Empire, which controls much of the world,” it said.
Both Putin and Diaz-Canel pledged to further strengthen their relationship in light of US sanctions against the two countries.
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