By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Oct 17 2001 (IPS)

The dismantling of a “spy station” located just outside Havana is to be completed by the end of the year, eliminating the last vestiges of the close military ties that Cuba had with the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced the closure of the Lourdes base Wednesday, according to reports from Moscow, though Alexandre Sukhostat, press secretary for the Russian embassy in Cuba had no comment on the matter.

The base at one time provided 75 percent of Russia’s intelligence and for nearly four decades served as a communications link between Moscow and some far-flung regions and with its merchant and fishing fleets, say United States sources.

Putin cited financial reasons for closing down the installations this year, though he said the decision did not mean his country plans to cut back on economic cooperation with Cuba.

“We advocate the full lifting of the (US) economic blockade against Cuba,” the Russian president told the Defence Ministry officials and other ministers gathered at the Kremlin, according to press reports.

The decision is also seen by international political observers as an attempt to establish closer ties with Washington as it involves erasing a long-standing Cold War symbol just 140 km from the US coast.

Moscow paid Havana 200 million dollars annually in rental fees for the radar station, enough to purchase and launch 20 military satellites, stated Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.

The installations at Lourdes, built in 1964, housed approximately 1,500 Russian technicians and soldiers who, in addition to their other missions, were entrusted with monitoring submarine activity around the Caribbean island. Maintaining the station’s staff cost some 300 million dollars annually, according to Russia’s calculations.

Putin had stated last December, at the end of his visit to Cuba, that the base continued to operate successfully and “in full compliance with international norms.”

Though it was not part of his official itinerary, Putin visited the Lourdes complex accompanied by President Fidel Castro and his brother, Raúl Castro, Cuba’s vice-president and minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The intelligence station had survived the transition in relations between Moscow and Havana following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but underwent a change in the ideological rules that had guided the bilateral agreement up until that year.

The military assistance the Soviet Union provided Cuba from 1959 to 1990 reached 10 billion dollars, according to official Cuban figures.

In 1990, Russia halted arms shipments to Cuba, and in subsequent years cut off supplies of replacement parts.

In mid-1993, Russia finalised the withdrawal of the Motorised Infantry Brigade, a remnant of the 1962 missile crisis that had put the world on the brink of a nuclear war.

President Castro stated last June that the island has not spent “even one cent” on weapons since the 1990 collapse of the European socialist bloc that triggered Cuba’s current economic crisis.

He thus attempted to refute rumours originating in the United States about an alleged military alliance between Cuba and China, which would reportedly include arms sales and joint intelligence efforts.

The years of military cooperation with the former Soviet Union had provided the island with “all the firearms (and) industrial quantities of munitions,” said Castro, to guarantee that any potential invaders would have to pay “an unpayable price.”

Havana still has the capacity to set up a network of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in case of a military attack from the United States, Castro stated at the time.

Excerpt:

By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Oct 17 2001 (IPS)

The dismantling of a “spy station” located just outside Havana is to be completed by the end of the year, eliminating the last vestiges of the close military ties that Cuba had with the now-defunct Soviet Union.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced the closure of the Lourdes base Wednesday, according to reports from Moscow, though Alexandre Sukhostat, press secretary for the Russian embassy in Cuba had no comment on the matter.

The base at one time provided 75 percent of Russia’s intelligence and for nearly four decades served as a communications link between Moscow and some far-flung regions and with its merchant and fishing fleets, say United States sources.

Putin cited financial reasons for closing down the installations this year, though he said the decision did not mean his country plans to cut back on economic cooperation with Cuba.

“We advocate the full lifting of the (US) economic blockade against Cuba,” the Russian president told the Defence Ministry officials and other ministers gathered at the Kremlin, according to press reports.

The decision is also seen by international political observers as an attempt to establish closer ties with Washington as it involves erasing a long-standing Cold War symbol just 140 km from the US coast.

Moscow paid Havana 200 million dollars annually in rental fees for the radar station, enough to purchase and launch 20 military satellites, stated Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.

The installations at Lourdes, built in 1964, housed approximately 1,500 Russian technicians and soldiers who, in addition to their other missions, were entrusted with monitoring submarine activity around the Caribbean island. Maintaining the station’s staff cost some 300 million dollars annually, according to Russia’s calculations.

Putin had stated last December, at the end of his visit to Cuba, that the base continued to operate successfully and “in full compliance with international norms.”

Though it was not part of his official itinerary, Putin visited the Lourdes complex accompanied by President Fidel Castro and his brother, Raúl Castro, Cuba’s vice-president and minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

The intelligence station had survived the transition in relations between Moscow and Havana following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but underwent a change in the ideological rules that had guided the bilateral agreement up until that year.

The military assistance the Soviet Union provided Cuba from 1959 to 1990 reached 10 billion dollars, according to official Cuban figures.

In 1990, Russia halted arms shipments to Cuba, and in subsequent years cut off supplies of replacement parts.

In mid-1993, Russia finalised the withdrawal of the Motorised Infantry Brigade, a remnant of the 1962 missile crisis that had put the world on the brink of a nuclear war.

President Castro stated last June that the island has not spent “even one cent” on weapons since the 1990 collapse of the European socialist bloc that triggered Cuba’s current economic crisis.

He thus attempted to refute rumours originating in the United States about an alleged military alliance between Cuba and China, which would reportedly include arms sales and joint intelligence efforts.

The years of military cooperation with the former Soviet Union had provided the island with “all the firearms (and) industrial quantities of munitions,” said Castro, to guarantee that any potential invaders would have to pay “an unpayable price.”

Havana still has the capacity to set up a network of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in case of a military attack from the United States, Castro stated at the time.

Excerpt: