Havana/The Minister of the Interior of Russia, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, arrived in Cuba early this Tuesday on a working visit and was received at the José Martí International Airport by his Cuban counterpart, General Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, and by the Russian ambassador in Havana, Víktor Koronelli.
Before the official press, the arrival of an Ilyushin-96 belonging to the Russian Government, registered by flight location pages, was announced. The route of the aircraft, from Moscow, surrounding the European Union and stopping in Casablanca (Morocco), shows the sanctions to which the Federation has been subjected since the invasion of Ukraine, in October 2022.
The official arrives on the island at a time of extreme tension after the capture of the Venezuelan ruler, Nicolás Maduro, by US troops and amid increased pressure from Washington on the Cuban regime.
According to reports from the Cuban News Agency (ACN), the Russian minister paid tribute to the 32 Cubans died on January 3 in Venezuela, during the incursion of US troops into the South American country. All of them were supposedly part of Maduro’s security ring.
The minister will hold a series of official meetings with Cuban authorities to address cooperation issues
Of the deceased that Cuba officially recognized, 21 belonged to the Ministry of the Interior and 11 to the Revolutionary Armed Forces. According to the most updated list, within the Interior group, at least 18 were officers, which is why that ministry took the brunt of the operation carried out by the US Delta Force.
Kolokoltsev’s visit is part of a series of bilateral meetings, the official press explained vaguely. The minister will hold a series of official meetings with Cuban authorities to address issues of cooperation, security and matters of mutual interest, according to official media.
In 2024, both countries signed a cooperation agreement in Moscow aimed at strengthening the fight against crime, the exchange of experiences and the training of personnel for these functions, signed by Kolokoltsev and Álvarez during the latter’s visit to Russia.
During the last year, repression on the Island has increased and State Security, which acts as political police under the orders of the Ministry of the Interior, has deployed numerous operations against activists and independent journalists.
Vladimir Kolokoltsev, born on May 11, 1961 in Nizhny Lomov, is a police general and has served as Minister of the Interior since May 2012.
This is not the first time that Kolokoltsev visits the Island. In 2023 he was also in Havana, where he was received by the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and Raúl Castro, a meeting that underlined the importance that Havana gives to contacts of this type with Moscow.
Vladimir Kolokoltsev, born on May 11, 1961 in Nizhny Lomov, is a police general and has served as Minister of the Interior since May 2012, a position to which he was appointed by presidential mandate. Before assuming his ministerial duties, he was commissioner of the Moscow Police and has had a long and faithful career within the Russian State Security bodies.
The visit of the Russian minister also occurs at a time of reconfiguration of Cuba’s international alliances, amid growing geopolitical tensions. The recent statements by the US Secretary of State, the Cuban-American Marco Rubio, that the regime must choose between “change and collapse” have caused an increase in war rhetoric in the Plaza de la Revolución.
