Politics

US ‘Yankee empire’ is Russia, Cuba’s common foe, says Cuban PM

Moscow, Nov 22 (EFE).- Cuba and Russia share a common enemy – the United States – president Miguel Díaz-Canel told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

During a state visit to Russia to boost bilateral ties, Diaz-Canela said “the Yankee empire” was the main threat to the two countries.

The Cuban president added that both Moscow and Havana had been handed hefty sanctions “that come from and have their origin in the same enemy, the Yankee empire, which has also manipulated an important part of the world.”

Diaz-Canel, who arrived in Russia on Monday as part of an international tour, described the sanctions against both countries as “unfair” and “arbitrary.”

Putin echoed his counterpart’s words, pointing out that Moscow had always opposed the economic blockade of the island and had supported the Cuban government on the international stage.

“All this is the result of the traditional friendship that was cemented by comrade Fidel Castro,” added Putin, a former KGB officer during the dying days of the Soviet Union.

Earlier in the day, both leaders unveiled a statue of Fidel Castro, the late communist politician and leader of the Cuban Revolution.

The three-meter-high bronze statue has been erected in Fidel Castro Square, in the northern Moscow district of Sokol.

The two leaders paid tribute to Castro and placed a large bouquet of red roses by the monument as funeral music played in the background.

The statue depicts a youthful Castro sporting his iconic green khaki jacket, leather cartridge belt, beret and military boots.

The statue cost the Russian Military Historical Society some 20 million rubles (around $333,000) to erect.

The square was named Fidel Castro in 2017, a year after the Cuban leader’s death on November 25, 2016.

Streets dedicated to the deceased presidents of Chile, Salvador Allende, and Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, can be found nearby.EFE

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