The EU must stop funding the brutal Cuba regime

Russia has always been Europe’s enemy. This is something that many of our Western and Central European friends seemed to forget since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not so in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

We bear the scars of Soviet occupation and control. We have never forgotten what it cost us. In my country of Lithuania, the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims) in Vilnius highlights the horrific human costs of the Soviet and Nazi occupations. You can see in shocking detail what we lost.

Hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians were sent to the gulags or outright murdered by the Soviets and their puppets. I am proud to have been part of our struggle for freedom from the grip of the Soviets. Independence from totalitarian oppression should never be taken for granted.

It certainly feels like we are returning to a world divided, the sort of world we thought had been left behind by the end of the Cold War. The lines have been drawn between the West and a new coalition of totalitarian states that are constantly looking to expand their territory and their influence.

How else could you describe Putin’s ongoing efforts to “reclaim” the land of the Russian Empire or that of the Soviet Union? At every turn, Putin has sought to expand his control and influence, in Europe, the Caucasus and beyond.

As part of this, Putin has looked to the old anti-West allies of the Soviet Union. His supply lines have been bolstered by North Korea, China and Iran. His flagrant violations of international arms embargoes are only the start. There can be no doubt that there are North Korean missiles and weapons systems being used against Ukraine. North Korean troops will soon be arriving in Europe to help Russia’s barbaric assault.

However, we cannot talk about Russia’s allies without mentioning Cuba. Cuba is a hold out of the Cold War and is stuck in the same mentality that has driven it forward since the Castros took over the country more than 60 years ago. The ties that have bound them and the Soviet Union together have now been more than renewed under Putin’s control.

Shadows of the Cuban Missile Crisis loomed into all our minds when Russia and Cuba engaged in their recent naval exercises.

However, there are two far more important parts of this relationship that we must consider. Firstly, Cubans have already been fighting in Putin’s bloody war against Ukraine. Recent estimates suggest that at least 5,000 “volunteers” have been deployed on European soil.

The second part of this, is that, for some bizarre and unfathomable reason the European Union funds the Castro regime.

A regime that, as a matter of principle and routine, oppresses its peoples and unquestionably supports Putin’s barbarity in Ukraine and the wider world. In the name of “dialogue” we are currently funding the Cuban dictatorship to the tune of €155 million, with around €300 million total being sent to the regime over the past 40 years.

In the past twenty years, we have also sent more than €130 million to North Korea. It is hideous naivety to think that this money has done anything other than help prop up these regimes. Regimes that are actively involved in the savage attack on Ukraine.

There can be no doubt, that if Ukraine falls, the European Union will be next on the agenda for Putin. These nations, his allies that continue to receive EU funding with be with him all the way. We must end these payments. It simply is not good enough to be helping rogue nations continue to repress their people and oppress others.