By Iván Sarmiento and AFP | 2024-07-30

HAVANA -- A Russian navy ship arrived in Cuba July 27 for a three-day stay, six weeks after Moscow sent a submarine and other naval vessels to visit the communist state off Florida's coast.

The Smolny training ship was greeted with salvos from Cuban artillery before it anchored in Havana's harbor, where residents and tourists gathered to take a look.

The ship, accompanied by the patrol ship Neustrashimiy and the oil tanker Yelnya, is "part of the Baltic Fleet group that is making a friendly visit to the Cuban capital," said Russia's embassy in Cuba.

"One more example of the close relations between our peoples," the embassy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

In mid-June, the Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan -- which Cuba said was not carrying nuclear weapons -- docked in Havana for five days.

The unusual deployment so close to US territory came amid major tensions over the war in Ukraine, where the Western-backed government is fighting a Russian invasion.

The United States sent a fast-attack submarine to its Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba a day after the Russian submarine arrived.

During the Cold War, Cuba was a key client state for the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war.

Russian base

The recent arrival of the Russian warship in Cuba -- the second in just a month and a half -- might be part of the Kremlin's plans for the permanent deployment of its naval forces on the island, a Russian military analyst suggested.

"The base for the Russian Armed Forces, both land and naval, is already being reestablished in Cuba," said Alexander Sharkovsky, the independent Cuban outlet Diario de Cuba reported July 25.

"If dry cargo ships are used, nuclear missiles could potentially arrive there again, as they did in 1962," he said.

"This represents a crucial strategic reserve for the security of the Russian Federation," said Sharkovsky, a frequent commentator on Russian state television.

Moscow would expedite the deployment of a large number of warships to Cuba if the White House proceeds with placing missile systems in European countries, he added.

Washington has announced plans to station long-range missiles in Germany by 2026, prompting the Kremlin to threaten a "military response."

Sharkovsky's statements align with threats made by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, when he suggested that Russia might arm Western adversaries in retaliation for the US government's supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.

"If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there will be strikes on sensitive facilities of those [Western] countries," Putin told reporters June 5 at an international economic forum in St. Petersburg.