After much hesitation about how to deal with small and medium-size private enterprises it authorized in 2021, the Cuban government is turning to Russia for help with market reforms on the island through a partnership with a Russian think tank headed by sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as the two countries vow to take their relationship to “a new level.”
The creation of a Center for Economic Transformation, in partnership with the Moscow-based Stolypin Institute for the Economy of Growth, came during a meeting between Cuba’s leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and a delegation of Russian officials and businessmen in Havana last week.
The head of the delegation, Russian politician and champagne company owner Boris Titov, told Russian news outlets Interfax and Sputnik that the institute, under Deripaska’s control as chairman of the board, will help Cuba carry out economic reforms involving the private sector. Deripaska was sanctioned in April 2018 as part of the U.S. response to the Russian government’s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine. He was indicted last September for violating those sanctions.
