Before going to the final of the World Cup at the Maracana in Rio de Janerio, Vladimir Putin will stop in Havana at the invitation of his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, according to a statement on the official website of the Kremlin. Cuba will be the first stop of the tour that the Russian President will take through Latin America starting Friday, July 11.
In just one day of stay, Putin will have a series of activities, which would go from signing documents on economic cooperation to meeting with Fidel Castro, according to the Russian presidency. Former Cuban President regularly receives heads of state passing through Havana, although it is uncommon that visitors announce the meeting before having it.
The content of the agreements to be signed is not clarified in detail. Exploration and extraction of oil in the seabed of the Cuban area in the Gulf of Mexico seems to be a topic of great interest. Russian President will come to Cuba just a month and a half after the signing of energy agreements in the context of plans to build a logistics base in the port of Mariel by one of the Russian oil companies.
The oil negotiations are of paramount importance. Putin attended the signing of this agreement between the Cuban CUPET with ROSNBEFT and Zarubezhneft, two Russian state corporations. Then Cuba sent Ruben Cid, Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy, to the World Petroleum Congress in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad).
The CUPET exploration department plans to initiate three seven kilometer deep drilling projects in 2015 in the Gulf of Mexico, announced the head of that division, Rafael Pérez Tenreiro to the Russian agency ITAR Tass.
Upon confirmation of the cancellation of 90 percent of the Soviet debt by the Federation Council (Russian Senate), it was reported that the remaining 10 percent (3.5 billion dollars) will be invested in Cuba on behalf of Moscow, in several projects, including “environmental initiatives” proposed by the authorities in Havana.
Cuba and Russia renew their relationship after the distancing experienced after the fall of the Soviet Union. The current head of Russian state had it clear from the beginning: “its cooling was an error,” he said in 2000, before his first visit to Havana.
