OPINION:
Vladimir Putin is getting desperate.
The embattled Russian leader’s dream of reconstituting the Soviet Union has proved more difficult than he anticipated. Mr. Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigyu, his longtime ally and defense minister, with an economist, signaling that his illegal invasion of Ukraine is causing a financial drain on the country, and a recent assessment by the British government estimates that the Kremlin has suffered 450,000 casualties since the war began. On Monday, Ukraine’s military said that Russia lost 1,740 troops in a single day, marking the highest number of daily Russian casualties.
While Mr. Putin continues to saber rattle his nuclear arsenal on the world stage to veil his fear of defeat, he is quietly mitigating Russian troop losses by conscripting young Cubans into his armed forces. To date, as many as an estimated 5,000 young Cubans have been lured to Eastern Europe with false promises of lucrative work contracts and Russian passports but are instead being forced to fight for Russia’s army.
This plan was initially revealed in September by The Moscow Times and ADN Cuba, and later amplified by Politico, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. Politico reported that Mr. Putin signed a November 2022 decree fast-tracking naturalization to foreigners signing up as contract soldiers, and that Moscow was promoting social media ads with women posing next to Cuban flags and the letter “Z,” Russia’s pro-war symbol. The posts offered Russian citizenship and $2,100 monthly, compared with Cuba’s usual salary of $25.
In January, Radio and Television Martí reported that Cuba also signed an agreement with Belarus to station Cuban troops there. Both regimes have supported the Kremlin’s war efforts.
While the Journal estimates the number of Cubans conscripted to fight for Russia at between 400 and 3,000, ADN America reported last week that the number is closer to 5,000.
Orlando Gutierrez Boronat, chairman of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which organizes engagement events with Ukrainian Parliament members, told The Washington Times: “The Moscow axis is fully at work in the aggression against Ukraine. Tehran provides drones, North Korea provides missiles, and the communist regime in Cuba provides Third World diplomacy and cannon fodder for the front lines.”
When news of Mr. Putin’s recruitment of young Cubans broke, Havana tried to cover up the forced conscriptions by saying they were the result of an external trafficking ring. That lie was dispelled after some abducted Cubans gave their testimonials to loved ones and the press. “Please help us try to get out of here as quickly as possible because we are afraid,” one Cuban, Alex Rolando Vega Diaz, told America TeVe, a Miami news network, in September.
While Havana’s forced conscriptions is a new development in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, recruiting Cuban soldiers is an age-old Kremlin practice previously used by the Soviet Union.
In its story last September, ADN Cuba quoted Cuban former political prisoner Luis Zuniga as saying that “it’s worth reminding the [Cuban] regime that they have indeed functioned as mercenaries. The Soviets paid them for every soldier sent to fight in Angola and Ethiopia. Additionally, ‘multinational’ oil companies compensated the Cuban regime with $1,000 dollar per month for each Cuban soldier tasked with guarding the oil facilities in Cabinda, an enclave belonging to Angola.”
Unfortunately, Ukraine’s troops can expect to face more Cubans on the battlefield.
Last week, Cuba’s straw president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who takes his orders from Communist Party Chairman Raul Castro, met with Mr. Putin at the Kremlin at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. The two leaders celebrated the long Soviet-era alliance between Havana and Moscow and condemned the U.S. as a common enemy.
“Our visit is also evidence of our commitment to the ideals that the Soviet Union, and later Russia, stood up for,” Mr. Diaz Canel told his Russian audience, according to a Kremlin transcript. “The Russian Federation can always count on Cuba’s support. We always condemn geopolitical manipulations by the U.S. government as well as the threat of NATO approaching Russia’s borders.”
Mr. Putin responded, “You know that the Soviet Union and now Russia have always been on your side, supporting the Cuban people in their fight for their interests and their Motherland.”
While both leaders condemned U.S. sanctions on the Cuban military dictatorship, the real purpose of the visit, Mr. Gutierrez Boronat tells The Times, is negotiating more Cuban conscriptions in exchange for Russian military intelligence reinforcement and loan forgiveness for oil for Havana’s failing military dictatorship.
“The Cuban communist dictatorship has always been a Moscow lackey, no matter who is in the Kremlin. Cubans have been sent to die in Moscow’s wars for the past 65 years. Only more Cuban deaths will come out of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Raul Castro’s puppet president,” he said.
While some on the fringe right continue to suggest that today’s Russia has evolved from the days of Soviet brutality, they should take note that Mr. Putin and Mr. Diaz-Canel do not distinguish the two and instead celebrate them in the same breath.
That is because unlike those fringe Americans foolish enough to embrace Kremlin propaganda, Mr. Putin has never distinguished today’s Russia from its Soviet ancestor — and he will continue to sacrifice both Russians and Cubans on the battlefield to fulfill his dream of reconstituting what President Ronald Reagan rightly called in 1983 “the new evil empire.”
• Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former senior adviser and director for the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting who has reported extensively on Russia. Last year, he was categorized as No. 467 on a list of 500 Americans who were banned from entering the Russian Federation. He serves on the editorial board for The Washington Times and as an adviser to ADN America.
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