Russia planning humanitarian food supplies to Cuba: Deputy PM

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Jan 2023 08:53

The Russian Deputy PM says Russia is working on organizing food supplies for Cuba.

Wheat in Semikarakorsky District of Rostov-on-Don region near Semikarakorsk, Southern Russia, July 6, 2022 (AP)

Russia is working on organizing humanitarian food supplies to Cuba, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko told Sputnik.

At the end of October 2022, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev confirmed that Russia was ready to supply up to 500,000 tonnes of grain to the world's struggling nations at no cost in the next four months.

"Of course, we are working on it," Abramchenko told Sputnik when asked about the grain supplies.

"These can be humanitarian food supplies financed from the reserve fund, there are also commercial supplies, lending to the poorest countries so that they can afford to buy Russian food. The latest example is work on organizing food supplies to Cuba, and this, again, is a humanitarian mission," she indicated.

In late November, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel welcomed Russia's independent foreign policy, including the federation's efforts to create a multipolar world, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Diaz-Canel underlined how the United States was a common opposing force to his country and Putin's, condemning unilateral sanctions, which the Caribbean island nation has been bearing the brunt of for the past six decades.

It is noteworthy that Cuba has been under US sanctions for 60 years. After a four-year relaxation during the presidency of Barack Obama, relations deteriorated under his successor Trump, who reinforced sanctions.

Despite election promises, US President Joe Biden has not reversed the measures, in fact hardening his speech following US-backed anti-government riots on the Caribbean island nation in July 2021.

Washington has kept Havana on its so-called list of countries deemed "sponsors of terrorism" and recently added it to another of countries "undermining religious freedom."