The chief of the Russian military's General Staff, visiting Cuba, says his country will help Havana modernize and train its military and that Moscow warships will visit Cuba soon, according to reports published Friday. The visit by Gen. Nikolai Y. Makarov as well as the head of Russian military intelligence and other high-ranking officers has sparked broad speculation about a possible renewal of the once extremely close relations between Moscow and Havana's armed forces.
``Although maintaining a military presence in Latin America has logistical and financial problems for Russia, it will still force the United States to address the Russian presence in its backyard,'' wrote Stratfor, a private geopolitical analysis firm based in Austin, Texas.
Moscow may also be interested in reopening the Lourdes electronic eavesdropping facility in Cuba that it closed under U.S. pressures in 2001, wrote Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami.
Makarov has been in Cuba several days leading a delegation that the newspaper Granma reported includes Lt. Gen. Alexander Shlyakhturov, head of the Russian military intelligence agency known as GRU, and Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav M. Proshkin, head of the General Staff's International Military Cooperation department.
The Stratfor report said Makarov declared on Friday that Russia ``will aid Cuba in the near future in modernizing its Soviet-era equipment and in training the country's military personnel'' Makarov also announced ``that preparations are under way for Russian warships to visit Cuba soon,'' the report added.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency Friday quoted Makarov as saying that during his meetings with Cuba's Raúl Castro they discussed ``issues of military-technical and military cooperation, primarily associated with the studies of Cuban specialists in Russia.''
Stratfor and Suchlicki noted that Makarov's visit was only the latest sign of warming relations between the Cuba and Russian armed forces, which cooled significantly after the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia halted subsidies to Havana estimated at $4-$6 billion a year.
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