Prior to the War on Ukraine and during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Russian tourists were the most popular visitors to the Cuban islands. However once Putin invaded Ukraine in February, Europe had to stop all airline travel because of Russian Aircraft. The European Union later imposed sanctions that forbid Russian aircraft from traveling into EU airspace, which included paths Russia used to travel to Latin America. Now, starting in October, two out of four major Russian commercial flight services will reopen and travel to Cuba using different routes that do not travel through EU airspace. The number of flights to Cuba will not travel at the same rate as they did in January, but still will help the economic status of the country. Cuba is hoping that the soon increase in tourism will help its current need for foreign currency to help the food crisis, regular power outages and lack of medicine. Other popular Russian airlines have already stated they will soon restart travel to Latin America in the near future.
Despite being overseas, Russia plays a big part in Cuba’s commerce and economy. Tourism is one of Cuba’s valuable sources of revenue for the country and economy. The decline of it, specifically from their greatest consumers, helped land the country in economic turmoil. So now that travel will soon pick back up, Cuba will hopefully see an increase in revenue and be able to soon improve their economic state. However, this event may reopen illegal transport of goods in Russia back to the islands for resale, which isn’t in the best interest of Cuba. This effort will restore the tourism industry for the nation of Cuba, but also may cause other issues to rise.
This event relates back to class because it highlights how countries work together to sustain one another’s economies and how relationships between countries are the most valuable in order for one to sustain itself in the world.