Miguel Diaz-Canel "left tonight [Monday] for Russia," wrote the Cuban Presidency, also on the social network X (formerly Twitter). Havana and Moscow are long-standing allies, but the previous meeting between the two Presidents, in November 2022, relaunched the partnership. Since then, delegations and senior officials from the two countries have visited each other, and a dozen agreements have been signed in various sectors. In February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made his second trip to Havana in less than a year. Bilateral trade increased ninefold in 2023 compared to the previous year, when trade amounted to $450 million (about 418 million euros), according to official Russian data. Some 185,000 Russian tourists visited the Caribbean island last year, second only to Canadians and Cuban-born Americans, up 242% compared to 2022. This rapprochement came at a time when Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in the last three decades, with rampant shortages and inflation, aggravated by structural economic weaknesses. Cuba has always taken a neutral position on the war in Ukraine, with Havana calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict and without condemning the Russian offensive. Read Also: EU and Cuba commit to seeking ways to promote trade (Portuguese version)