Moscow Pledges Support for Cuba Despite US Pressure

Russia said on Thursday that it would actively support Cuba despite efforts by the United States to intimidate and tighten the “sanctions noose” around the communist-run island.

Moscow’s statement came a day after the US announced murder charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, a major escalation in Washington’s campaign against Cuba. The country has been ruled by communists since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would “continue to provide the most active support to the fraternal Cuban people during this extremely difficult period”.

She also expressed “full solidarity with Cuba” and condemned what she called “gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, intimidation, and the use of illegal unilateral restrictive measures, threats, and blackmail”.

Zakharova did not specify what form the Russian assistance would take. She said the United States was showing “intolerance towards any form of dissent and a cynical embodiment of the revived Monroe Doctrine”.

(reuters, bak)