|
Posted by
Olog-hai
on Sun Dec 21 13:47:39 2014, in response to Re: Pope Francis' role splits Cuban-American Catholics (US, Cuba taking steps to ''normalize'' relations), posted by kew gardens teleport on Sun Dec 21 13:31:28 2014.
fiogf49gjkf0d Yeah sure, "Pooty-poot lost". Is Obama moving to block this? Nope. (Besides, it's too late to.)
NY Thymes
Hawkish Russian Emissary to Visit Cuba’s LeadersBy Andrew Roth
Dec. 19, 2014Just days after President Obama announced a historic thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba, one of Russia’s most hawkish emissaries was set to arrive in Havana on Friday to meet with Cuba’s leadership.
The emissary, Dmitri O. Rogozin, the outspoken deputy prime minister whose portfolio includes Russia’s weapons and space programs, had already panned the United States’ supposed change of heart toward Cuba as just a calculated change in tactics.
“Now they will suffocate them in their embrace,” Mr. Rogozin said Thursday on Twitter during a tour through Latin America, where he was negotiating economic and weapons contracts in Brazil, Venezuela and other countries.
There is little trust in the benevolence of American foreign policy in Moscow now, largely because of the perceived hand of the State Department in Ukraine’s revolution in February. A well-traveled but still popular joke asks why there has not been a revolution in Washington. The answer: There is no American Embassy there.
Discounting avowed hawks like Mr. Rogozin, analysts and diplomats in Moscow met Mr. Obama’s decision with an approval that is rare in the current political climate, where a win for America is often seen as a loss for Russia.
“My understanding is that the official reaction was neutral-positive,” said Sergei A. Karaganov, a prominent Russian political scientist and dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
Russia has long pushed for the United States to recognize Cuba and in taking that step, “one could only applaud Mr. Obama, whether you like him or not,” Mr. Karaganov added with a chuckle.
But with that approval came a message that has implications for relations between the United States and Russia: Sanctions do not work.
With the United States declaring its intention to isolate President Vladimir V. Putin, and Western sanctions contributing to the recent havoc in the Russian economy, it was a message that the Foreign Ministry in Moscow delivered bluntly on Thursday even as it lauded the decision on Cuba.
“It is characteristic that the president of the United States admitted the lack of results of many years of attempts to ‘isolate’ Cuba,” the Foreign Ministry said in a 154-word statement. “It remains to hope that Washington will soon recognize the fruitlessness of the similar pressure of sanctions on other countries.”
That was repeated on Russian television by anchors and pundits, who also played down concerns that Russia’s influence in Latin America could be diminished by the United States.
Mr. Putin wrote off $32 billion in Cuba’s Soviet-era debt this year, earning good will that will pay future dividends, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of a Russian foreign affairs journal and the head of an influential policy group, said on state television.
“With the country emerging from isolation, Russia can now count on its active cooperation,” Mr. Lukyanov said.
Alexander Baunov, a former diplomat and world affairs columnist for the Slon news website, said that Mr. Rogozin’s diplomatic writ would be to sow doubt about the United States’ intentions.
“His mission is to be informed,” Mr. Baunov said in a telephone interview. “And he will try to convince them that they not hurry to get too close to America, because they will fool you.”
|
