Cornered in Ukraine and isolated by the West, the Kremlin returns to Cuba

Dozens of Russian officials have travelled to Cuba in recent months — and some former Cuban government insiders are warning that Russia might plan to again use the island as a forward base on the United States' doorstep.

Over the past few weeks, Russian oligarchs have signed agreements with Havana covering a wide range of commercial interests: supplying wheat to Cuba; investments in its sugar and rum industries; revitalizing ports, urban infrastructure and hotels.

For Rolando Remedios, who was arrested in the protests against one-party rule that broke out across Cuba on July 11, 2021, the return of the Russians suggests the Cuban Communist Party believes it has no alternative if it wants to hold on to power.

Since March, the island has hosted not only Lavrov, but also Nikolai Patrushev — who has headed Russia's Security Council for 15 years — Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and Boris Titov, an oligarch with a presidential commission who led a delegation of Russian business leaders that signed agreements for 30 projects in Cuba.

In recent days, Lavrov and Kremlin-controlled television have been hinting at a reprise of the Soviet Union's first armed foray into the Western hemisphere — when it secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962.

In return for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev'snuclear withdrawal from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy agreed to remove Jupiter nuclear missiles the U.S. had placed near Russia in Turkey.