Kremlin to loan millions of euros to Cuba for arms

RUSSIA was close to agreeing to a €38 million (R621m) loan to Cuba to help the country buy Russian-made arms, a deputy finance minister said yesterday, after President Vladimir Putin met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-canel in Moscow.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper had previously reported that Moscow planned to grant Cuba a loan of more than $50m (R719m) to allow it to buy Russian hardware including tanks, armoured vehicles and military helicopters.

Under Putin, Russia has sought to revive relations and deepen its influence in Latin America, particularly with countries wary of US influence such as Cuba, where friendly ties with Moscow date back to the Soviet era.

Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said a Cuban military delegation would visit Russia in two weeks, when he expected a loan-for-hardware deal to be signed. Russian news agencies reported that Cuban Defence Minister General Leopoldo Cintra Frias would be part of the delegation.

“Work (on the loan) is continuing,” Storchak told reporters.

“Nobody has refused anyone anything. There is such a theme and there is such a loan. It’s just that there are some parts of it which have yet to be agreed. A DAY after German consumer groups took a major step towards filing a class action suit against Volkswagen, another set of documents for a second suit have been filed.

Consumer protection groups in the second so-called sample class action are suing Volkswagen Bank, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, a court in the northern city of Braunschweig said yesterday.

The case concerns loan agreements made with customers of the bank, it added.

“The scope is much smaller this time,” a spokesperson for the court said, referring to the first sample case filed on Thursday. In this case, consumer agencies launched a sample class action on behalf of people whose VW diesel vehicles have depreciated in value. MUSLIM cleric Sami ul-haq, known as the “Father of the Taliban” for having taught some of the Afghan Islamist movement’s leaders, was shot dead yesterday in a Pakistani city, a relative and his deputy said.

Unknown attackers shot the prominent cleric, who runs an Islamic school in north-western Pakistan, his deputy Yousaf Sha and nephew said.

They said he was visiting the capital Islamabad this week, but further details of the shooting were unclear. Some local media said ul-haq was in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi when he was shot and killed.