Commander of Russian naval detachment appreciates stopover in Cuba

Havana, July 28 (RHC) Rear Admiral Oleg G. Gúrinov, commander of the Russian naval detachment that arrived Saturday in Havana, thanked the Cuban authorities for the opportunity to make a stopover on the island.

Together with his crew, the officer was received by the charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy here, Ana V. Kosenkova, and the head of the department of navigation and operations of the Revolutionary Navy, flotilla captain Alberto Vazquez.

We are grateful for the possibility given to our crews to rest and more so considering that we have already made a navigation exceeding three thousand miles, Gúrinov stated on board the training ship Smólniy.

We hope that during this stop the sailors will get acquainted with the culture and get closer to the glorious history of Cuba, he added.

According to the Rear Admiral, the visits of Russian naval detachments to Cuba “have become a noble tradition” and their main purpose is “to strengthen cooperation in the naval sphere”.

They are possible thanks to the special relations between Cuba and Russia. Our collaboration is based on friendship, reciprocity and mutual trust, and we are confident that it will continue in the future, he said.

More than 240 midshipmen arrived on the Smolniy, students of the Russian Navy's educational centers, who undergo four types of training, especially in the navigation system.

The patrol boat Neustrahimiy and the oil tanker Yelnya, which together with the Smolniy make up the Baltic fleet, the oldest in Russia, also arrived in the Cuban capital.

During their stay, the Russian sailors will carry out a program of activities that includes visits to flotilla captain José Luis Souto Galindo, second in command of the Revolutionary War Navy, and to the capital's government headquarters.

They will also visit places of historical and cultural interest in Havana, whose inhabitants will be able to visit the Smolniy and the Neustrahimiy next Sunday and Monday, in the afternoon.

This is the second stopover of the Russian Navy in less than two months, since on June 12, four ships of the Northern Fleet docked in the main Cuban city.