Russia slams Trump’s turnaround on Cuba

RUSSIA’S Foreign Ministry yesterday said it regretted US President Donald Trump’s policy reversal on Cuba, calling it reminiscent of the Cold War era.

“The new line towards Cuba announced by US President Donald Trump takes us back to already half-forgotten rhetoric in the style of the Cold War,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Trump vowed on Friday to overhaul his predecessor Barack Obama’s deal to restore ties with Cuba, promising instead to support the Cuban people against Raul Castro’s government.

In practical terms, Trump’s review of the deal was limited. He will not break the diplomatic ties Obama worked so carefully to restore, nor does he plan to impose new trade sanctions.

But he did tighten rules for Americans travelling to Cuba, ban ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirm the existing US trade embargo – which will be firmly enforced.

Moscow said Trump’s policy changes showed that “antiCuban discourse is still widely in demand. This cannot but cause regret.”

It said that easing of sanctions under Obama was a “well-thought-out political decision in which there were no losers except marginal Castro opponents”.

Russia said it was reaffirming its “unshakeable solidarity with Cuba”.

Cuban President Raul Castro visited Russia in 2015 while President Vladimir Putin visited the island on a tour of Latin America in 2014, meeting both the president and the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died last year.