Russia Cuts Deals with Cuba, Venezuela to Challenge U.S. in the West

Russia’s rubber-stamp legislature passed an “intergovernmental agreement on military cooperation” with the communist government of Cuba on Tuesday, formalizing an already existing alliance providing cannon fodder for the invasion of Ukraine.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro also announced on Tuesday that he had solidified a “strategic partnership” with Russia that could allow Moscow greater ability to leverage influence in the Western Hemisphere, challenging the United States.

According to the Russian news agency Tass, the upper house of the Duma ratified an agreement that “will provide legal grounds to define the goals, areas and forms of bilateral military cooperation,” suggesting that such cooperation already existed between the two countries informally. The agreement is one step below the commitments of the mutual defense treaty that Russia signed with North Korea in June 2024, which preceded Pyongyang admitting that it had deployed troops to the war theater against Ukraine in Kursk.

Alexander Stepanov, a purported Russian “military expert,” told Tass that the military agreement with Cuba was a form of retaliation against President Donald Trump for his ongoing support for Ukraine, in particular concerns that the United States may soon provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

“This is about a symmetrical response to the potential supply of Tomahawks,” Stepanov stated plainly. “The ratified agreement maximally expands our military cooperation and allows, within the framework of bilateral interaction and in coordination with the government of the Republic of Cuba, to deploy virtually any offensive systems on the island’s territory.” (Read more from “Russia Cuts Deals with Cuba, Venezuela to Challenge U.S. in the West” HERE)

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