Cuban President Fidel Castro has accused Russia of betraying Cuba by abandoning its bilateral commitments after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union’s ”primary successor, Russia, a US ally, suspended all its agreements and betrayed Cuba,” Castro said Saturday during a ceremony rededicating 100 primary schools in Havana.
”I cannot use another word, although I don’t mean to blame any leader in particular.”
Castro said that the break-up of the Soviet Union ”was the product of its mistakes and the lamentable way it lost the ideological battle with capitalist, imperialist Western bourgeoisie under the aegis of the United States.”
He recalled that the disappearance of the Soviet bloc and the tightening of the US embargo forced the island into an economic crisis.
That crisis hit all aspects of Cuban life, including the educational system, which became a disaster in Havana, he said.
The 100 schools dedicated on Sunday bring the total number of rehabilitated schools to 402 out of a total of 746 in the capital. – Sapa-AFP