Top Putin ally meets Cuba's Raul Castro to discuss security cooperation - Interfax

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin, has met Cuba's former leader Raul Castro to discuss security cooperation, the Interfax news agency reported. "Various issues of Russian-Cuban cooperation in the field of security were discussed," Russia's security council said in a statement cited by Interfax.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin, has met Cuba's former leader Raul Castro to discuss security cooperation, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Various issues of Russian-Cuban cooperation in the field of security were discussed," Russia's security council said in a statement cited by Interfax. "Nikolai Patrushev assured Raul Castro that Moscow remains committed to the spirit of strategic partnership between the two countries," it said.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and U.S. diplomats. After the West slapped what U.S. and European leaders cast as the toughest sanctions ever imposed on a major economy, Russia has turned away from Europe and the United States and has boosted ties with countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Putin has an invitation to visit Cuba.