Eager to modernize its army, Cuba invites Russia to share in profits from oil venture

Eager to modernize its army, Cuba invites Russia to share in profits
from oil venture

Cuba is showing "increased interest in the modernization of weapons and
military equipment that have been in the service of its armed forces
since the days of the Soviet Union," but it is hampered by the lack of
the needed funds, a Russian defense expert told the RIA-Novosti news agency.

The expert was identified as Pauline Temerin of the Center for (fot2)
Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based think tank. She
said Cuba "has repeatedly asked Russia to modernize its army's military
equipment."

Cuba derives much of its income from tourism, agriculture and the
exportation of services – mostly doctors – "but revenues from those
sources cannot cover the costs of modernizing the army," Temerin told
RIA-Novosti.

For that reason, she said, Cuba is offering Russia to participate in the
energy sector, specifically oil exploration. In such joint ventures, the
investor holds 49 percent of the action, Cuba keeps 51 percent.
"Their volumes are not so great, but they cover the needs of the
country, and in this sector the Canadians, and even the Chinese, have
done well," Temerin said.

Between 1961 and 1991, arms shipments from the Soviet Union to Cuba
amounted to about $16 billion, RIA-Novosti reported. Cuba has
Soviet-made T-55 and T-62 tanks, armored personnel carriers,
antiaircraft missiles, MiG-21, -23 and -29 fighters, Mi-8, -14, -17 and
-24 helicopters, submarines, warships and patrol boats, all of which are
outdated.

In fact, most of the military hardware displayed during the April 16
parade in Havana was of Cold War vintage.

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