Moscow: Once again, as every year on this date, messages of support for the cause of the Cuban people and of remembrance to the figure of the revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, inhabited the Internet networks in Russia, Prensa Latina publishes.
Last November 25th marked the fifth anniversary of the physical disappearance of the hero of so many battles against US aggression, of the man who survived more than 600 attacks, the one who guided Cuba in the construction of a more just country project, despite the proximity of his main enemy.
In Russia, 9,950 kilometers away, the date did not go unnoticed by friends from the Caribbean island, also admirers of its Commander-in-Chief, to the point that they called Planeta Fidel, the November 24 program on the Europa for Cuba YouTube channel.
Academics, artists, intellectuals, writers and politicians from Russia, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, Guatemala and Cuba paraded through the marathon space of almost five hours, expressing their respect for the Caribbean leader.
Each testimony, each anecdote, was accompanied by the solidarity of the Russian people towards the independent path of development that Cuba defends, the same one that, they recalled, Fidel Castro initiated, and that he carried forward for decades.
Lena Loshkina, head of the Russian Committee for the elimination of the blockade against Cuba, considered that the figure and the validity of Fidel’s ideas – as most Cubans affectionately call him – transcend the borders of the Caribbean island.
In this sense, the Russian academic Alexander Jarlamenko highlighted his imprint on the conception and consolidation of integrationist organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, without the participation of the United States.
He gave as examples the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
Jarlamenko expressed that despite the attacks of the right-wing forces and the pressure from Washington, his ideas live in the social processes of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and more recently in Peru.
For the professor at the Moscow State University, Nicolai Prilepsky, Fidel and Cuba in the middle of the 20th century were like fresh and free air for everyone, as were Lenin and the October Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century.
That day, the eve of the anniversary, when starting official talks in Moscow with Cuban Vice Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, also Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, recalled the historical significance of Fidel Castro.
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out that the heritage of the Cuban leader is important for the ties between both nations, but also for his approaches and principles for the creation of a new, fairer order, not only for Latin America and the Caribbean, but also for the world in general.
Despite the cold and snow, on the morning of November 25, Russians and Cubans came together to remember Fidel with flowers, in the place that bears his name in this capital.