"Goodwill" Russian Naval Visit to Cuba

"Goodwill" Russian Naval Visit to Cuba
Is This a Sign of a Returning Cold War?
Shon Williams, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 12, 2013

It's been 51 yrs since the Cuban missile crisis caused America to almost
go to nuclear war with Russia. And while we aren't likely see a return
of the Cold War, it is newsworthy to note Russia's recent naval visit to
Cuba. With little fanfare from the press, Russia just sent a cruiser, a
destroyer accompanied by a tanker to the port in Havana. The visit is
described as being a message of "goodwill", of course. To further
strengthen ties with the island, Russia announced $30 billion dollars of
debt relief that was previously owed to them by Cuba. As a country, Cuba
has obvious geopolitical significance to Russia because of its close
proximity to America's east coast, let alone our long-standing icy
relationship with Cuba. Let's be honest, Russia naval vessels near the
Alaskan coastline doesn't raise eyebrows the same way as having them
near Florida.

The naval visit is probably Putin making sure Cuba doesn't forget about
its powerful ally to the east. It's not as if Cuba has a lot of friends
in the world outside of South America anyway. It's also Putin's way of
sending a clear and unequivocal reminder to the U.S, in case we somehow
forgot, about the reach of the Russian military. Putin has consistently
remained defiant in the face of pressure from the Obama administration
on various key issues. Whether it's the Snowden debacle, political
support for Iran, to providing military aid to the Assad regime, Putin
increasingly flexes muscle's (no pun intended) with the sole intent of
reminding America that Russia is still a world super power with clout.

So much attention has been paid to China's global economic expansion
that it's easy to forget about the big bear in the east. It shouldn't be
forgotten though, that Russia currently produces more oil than any
country in the world followed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Iran and China.
Their oil boom did more to line the pockets of elites in Moscow than all
their former occupations ever could. Oil makes Russia rich and relevant
enough to project military might internationally once again. To be
clear, Russia has never tried to match America's capitalistic prowess.
It simply isn't their strong suit, since Russians aren't exactly the
most charismatic or ethical business partners to deal with. Although, it
is interesting that one of them owns the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.
No need to yell "The Russians are Coming" just yet though. Instead,
their strategy has always been built upon showing themselves as an
American political substitute in the world, a conflict broker and still
a major weapons exporter. They remain a constant thorn in any American
President, partly because Russia is second behind the U.S. as being the
world's largest arms exporter.

Now as far as this visit to Cuba is concerned, it would be irrational to
overstate the recent visit to Havana as a being a Kennedy era crisis.
The nightmarish idea of shared mutual destruction is pretty well
establish as pure insanity where no one emerges as a winner. Instead,
what could be developing to replace the former Cold War, will look more
like a Chill War with philosophical and political disagreements vs. open
threats of annihilation.

Source: ""Goodwill" Russian Naval Visit to Cuba - Yahoo! Voices -
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