The headline reads, “Lavrov thanks Cuba for ‘full understanding’ on Ukraine invasion.” He did indeed. Sergey Lavrov is Putin’s foreign minister. He was recently in Havana. The report I have cited gives a touching detail — touching to some of us, that is: “Since Lavrov arrived in Havana on Wednesday night, the US embassy in the capital has been lit up in the colors of the Ukraine flag.”
Last November in Moscow, Putin unveiled a statue of Fidel Castro. That was natural.
In October 2014, I wrote a piece about Russia and Cuba, and their relations. An excerpt:
You can sometimes discern the shape of the world by looking at votes in the United Nations. In fact, these votes are very handy indicators. Who’s aligned with whom? What’s the correlation of forces in the world?
Last March, the U.N. General Assembly voted on a resolution supporting the “territorial integrity of Ukraine.” This resolution, in effect, condemned Russia for its annexation of Crimea. There were just ten votes against the resolution, other than Russia’s.
Two of the votes came from former Soviet republics: Belarus and Armenia. The former is essentially a Communist dictatorship, complete with a KGB. The latter resents Ukraine for its support of Azerbaijan, Armenia’s neighbor and enemy.
Three of the votes came from genocidal or quasi-genocidal states: North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. There was also Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
Finally, there were four Communist or would-be Communist states in Latin America: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.
Yes, there is a correlation of forces in the world. I’m glad that the United States is on the side of the Ukrainians, trying to fight off invasion and subjugation. But we have a presidential election coming up. I hope that the Ukrainians do their work as fast as possible — that they do the most they can, to fight off Putin’s forces. They are on the frontline of a broader war. Dictators such as Putin rarely tire. And U.S. support of the Ukrainians is far from guaranteed.
Source link : https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/friends-of-each-other-enemies-of-mankind/amp/
Author :
Publish date : 2023-04-27 03:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.