Cuba to Boost Trade Ties with Russia

Boxy Ladas, Russian-built automobiles, still rattle around Cuba, growing more decrepit by the year, a reminder of vanished Soviet patronage for the Communist-led Island.

Cuba to boost its trade ties with Cold War ally Russia.

More than 300 new Ladas are slated to roll onto Havana’s potholed streets next month, the first in more than a decade. The manufacturer Avtovaz, Russia’s biggest automaker, stated that it hopes to ramp up exports, the company also thanked the financing from Russian government development bank VEB.

Flush with state funding, Avtovaz and other Russian businesses are once again increasing sales to the Caribbean isle. It is a part of a broader move by Moscow to renew commercial, military, and political ties just as the U.S. government is retreating from Cuba under Republican President Donald Trump.

An official Russian data showed that exports from Russia to Cuba jumped 81 percent on the year to $225 million in the January – September period. That is just a quarter of the exports of China, Cuba’s chief merchandise trading partner, but it's growing fast.

In May, the Russian state oil major Rosneft resumed fuel shipments to Cuba for the first time this century. The company’s head met with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Saturday, the newest sign that the two countries are getting ready for a major energy agreement.

The nations in the past have discussed the increased deliveries of Russian oil to the island and development of Cuba’s offshore oil fields.

That would be a big assist for Cuba amid slumping shipments of inexpensive fuel from its troubled socialist ally Venezuela.

Last month, Sinara, a private Russian company, delivered the first 75 locomotives worth $190 million ordered by Cuba in 2016. KAMAZ, Russia’s largest truck maker, has also stepped up exports to Cuba.

“We can call this period a renaissance,” Russia’s trade representative in Cuba, Aleksandr Bogatyr, stated. He also forecast that the bilateral trade could grow to $350 million to $400 million this year, one of its highest levels in nearly two decades.

Russia’s Cuba offensive comes as Trump has halted efforts by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama to normalize the ties between U.S. and Cuba.

According to some experts, Moscow is seizing on that rollback as a way to undermine U.S. influence in its own backyard.

“Russia sees it as a moment to further its own relationship with Cuba,” Jason Marczak, a Director at the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

“The more the Russian footprint increase in Cuba, the more that will reinforce hardened anti-U.S. attitudes and shut out U.S. businesses from eventually doing greater business in Cuba.”

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