The chief of Russian foreign espionage meets in Cuba with Díaz-Canel and Raúl Castro
HAVANA, Dec. 11th (EFE) The Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, met Monday in Havana with the former president and leader of the ruling Communist Party, Raul Castro, and the president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, reported this Tuesday the agency.
During Narishkin’s visit to Havana, the head of Russia’s foreign espionage “discussed with the leaders of Cuba’s security and intelligence agencies how to improve cooperation in protecting the national interests of Russia and Cuba,” according to the RIA Nóvosti and Interfax agencies.
In addition, the parties exchanged views on various aspects of regional security, according to the SVR, which did not give more details of the meetings held by Naryshkin in Cuba.
Last November, the Cuban president visited the Kremlin during his tour of Asia and Europe and held several meetings with the Russian authorities, including his leader, Vladimir Putin.
Naryshkin’s visit to the island coincides with the announcement on Monday that his government and that of Venezuela will carry out military maneuvers that include “combined operational flights” in Caracas.
The country’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, said they are preparing to defend Venezuela “We are going to do it with our friends, because we have friends in the world,” he said.
Padrino also added that “nobody in the world” should fear for the presence of these aircraft in Caracas, because Venezuela and Russia are “builders of peace and not war.”
Mike Pompeo reacted by saying that the shipment of two Russian strategic bombers Tu-160 to Venezuela is squandering public money for “two corrupt governments”, something that in the Kremlin has not sat well.
“Regarding the squandering of public money, we do not agree with that, and it is out of the question that a country that spends half of its money on defense can feed all of Africa,” the spokesperson told reporters. of the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
The head of US diplomacy wrote on Monday on the social network Twitter: “The Russian and Venezuelan peoples must see this as what it is: two corrupt governments squandering public money and crushing freedom while their peoples suffer.”
Peskov stressed that it deals with “nothing diplomatic” statements by the secretary of state. “It is a very serious accusation when such words are said about the Russian government, and we consider that this is absolutely inappropriate,” he added.
At the same time, the spokesman stressed that Russia seeks to establish constructive relations with the United States and trusts that “sooner or later there will be reciprocity on the part of Washington.”
The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zajárova, said on the other hand that Washington should not be “nervous”.
“There are only two planes and the State Department is hysterical, dear colleagues, do not be nervous,” the spokeswoman wrote on the Facebook social network.
