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00:00Well, Cuba is trying to ease concerns about their arrival of Russian warships in Havana next week
00:06The ships will be there to carry out naval exercises along with Moscow's allies Cuba and Venezuela
00:12Cuban officials have said the Russian ships will not have any nuclear weapons on board and that they did not present a threat to the
00:19Region u.s. Officials have said they don't see the arrival of Russian ships to Cuba as threatening
00:24But that the u.s. Navy would be monitoring the exercises for more. Let's cross to our correspondent in Havana at Augustine and
00:32What are Cuban officials saying exactly about what to expect when these exercises take place next week?
00:40Well, as you said in your introduction they've been downplaying it
00:44discursively
00:45They've been saying you know that the submarine is not going to be armed with a nuclear missile be very odd if it were
00:52given how close Cuba is to the United States and and the backlash that that would create but
00:58more than
01:00beyond predictable
01:02Words from the Cuban foreign ministry. I think the backdrop of this is Cuba's huge economic crisis and it's
01:10Increasing inability to keep the lights on I'm speaking to you from Havana where we're privileged
01:15We've only had four hours of power cuts today
01:18In lots of the provinces that make up most of the country people are sometimes going up
01:22Going without 20 going without like 20 hours per day. And so what we're seeing is Cuba trying to court Russia
01:30Because they need the oil they need the petrol
01:33And within that context there's actually been quite a bit of fanfare around this within Cuba
01:38So I got a press release this morning from the Cuban ministry
01:42Sorry the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces and they announced that they're going to be
01:48The three warships and the one
01:50Submarine come into Havana Bay. There's going to be a 21-gun salute. So it's all quite showy
01:55They're going to be put on a bit going to be putting on a bit of razzle-dazzle
01:59And I think what the Cubans are trying to I think what Cuban politicians are trying to communicate to their
02:04Populace is that Cuba's not completely alone at this time that the regime has international allies
02:11And I think what they're trying to tell it and communicate to the United States
02:16implicitly is that
02:19They that if they get hit even harder with the sanctions the sanctions have been ratcheted up to unprecedented heights
02:25since the Trump administration the Biden administration's kept most of them in place that they'll get closer to Russia and
02:31That is not something that US policymakers particularly in the Democratic Party
02:35But many within the Republican Party want and so Cuba wants to ratchet up and tell her off its nuisance value
02:41But it's historically been very good at doing at a time when frankly
02:45Cuba's way down the headlines and way down most policymakers thoughts in the United States. They want to get back up there
02:53So that they can get some sanctions relief
02:56Of course, this comes in the context of strained relations to put it mildly between the US and Russia over Ukraine
03:01But how does the Cuban public view the presence of Russian military power on its shores?
03:10Mixed as you can imagine in an island of 10 or 11 million people
03:14I mean, it's worth saying that the way in which Russia's invasion of Ukraine is covered and talked about in many European nations
03:21It's very different. It's how it is here. First of all
03:24geographically
03:25Cuba's just a very long way away from
03:28From from that and people feel far away from it. Second of all, the economic crisis is so
03:36Stultifying so
03:39People are up to their eyeballs with different difficulties of putting food on the plate power cuts
03:44How am I going to be able to get to work that in a sense thinking about?
03:49International issues such as Russia Ukraine seems a little bit abstract
03:52And of course you do have a lot of nostalgic value for the former Soviet Union people remember that when the Russians
04:01were closer to
04:04Cuba for good or for ill people had a better quality of life. So particularly amongst the older generations
04:09There's a nostalgic value and fond memories. Lots of people travel there study there
04:15But overall it's not seen
04:17In the way in the dangerous lights that it is certainly by NATO countries
04:23I think a lot of people think practically
04:25You know if they're gonna bring us food if they're gonna give us cheap petrol if the Europeans don't want to buy it so much
04:31the better
04:32Okay, we'll have to leave it there our correspondent Havana at Augustine Ed. Thanks so much. We appreciate it
04:38Well here