A Russian truck factory is taking the Cuban regime to court over a million dollar debt

Miass, the Russian automobile company that makes Ural trucks, will take the two Cuban companies to court. In a business boycotted by Havana, for not sending the parts and pieces of those vehicles to the island for their assembly.

According to local media ura.ruThe plant, located in Chelyabinsk, was filed in the Moscow Arbitration Court A request for 23.4 million euros to the Cuban State Enterprise Importer and Exporter of Technology Products (Technoimport) and International Trade Bank SA (PICSA).

The case involves the Russian company VEB.RF, a state-funded development agency that would have acted as an intermediary between Moscow and Havana.

According to data from the jury file, the trial will begin in mid-September.

“Ural Automobile Plant has filed a lawsuit for collective recovery for 22 million euros in damages and 1.4 million euros in interest for using other people’s funds”The Moscow Arbitration Court pointed to the report.

Accordingly ura.ru, business between Cuban and Russian companies dates back decades. The automobile plant participated in a cooperation program with Cuba in which it undertook to supply engines, components and bodies. Kubers will assemble the Ural Model 4320 trucks off the shelf.

Likewise, the company dedicated a separate area in the plant to train engineers in assembling the trucks and recorded an instructional video aimed at the Cuban side.

Deliveries involving kits for assembly of 120 GAZ cars and 500 Ural trucks took place in 2018.While the plant is owned by Gas Group.

“There was never talk of charity, but the money for those products was never received. In each case, the Cuban side found reasons why it did not pay. They explained that the cars did not work and were impossible to assemble. However, photos of a military parade in Cuba show these vehicles being actively used,” explained a company source.

This request comes within hours of knowing that The Kremlin postponed the payment of a loan to build a power plant until 2040.and for whose fate Havana never assumed responsibility.

Changes related to the intergovernmental agreement signed by the Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Cuba Ricardo Caprizas were approved by the Government of the Russian Federation by the decision of Vladimir Putin.

In 2014, Putin forgave 90% of Havana’s debt from the USSR era, amounting to 35,000 million dollars.Of this, Raul Castro’s regime must return only 3,500 million.

In February 2022, hours before the start of the invasion of Ukraine, the Duma (the lower house of the Russian federal legislature) approved a $2.3 billion debt restructuring plan that the company’s president negotiated on a trip to Havana.

According to the Russian Duma, The plan provides for the restructuring of Cuba’s debt with Russia within the framework of four intergovernmental debt agreements issued between 2006 and 2019. 2,300 million dollars.

Russian loans were provided to finance projects in sectors such as energy, metals and transportation, as well as guaranteeing the supply of goods to the island. Part of that amount was deferred in the deal announced this week.

According to the new protocol for debt repayment, Cuba will have “the last repayment on December 15, 2027,” the official Prensa Latina agency noted.

As Independent Russian Media has warned The Moscow Times, “The Kremlin continues to return to the Soviet practice of paying billions of dollars to foreign friendly regimes, extending loans and forgiving them in exchange for loyalty.”

The media insists that the $32,000 million pardoned to Raul Castro in 2014 represents, at current exchange rates, the equivalent of the annual budget of state medicine for compulsory health insurance. and ten-year budgets from rich regions such as Nizhny Novgorod or Novosibirsk.

Last year, according to the Accounts Council, Russia paid only 33.8 million rubles in loans issued to foreign countries and legal entities.

Compared to 2021, the revenue has decreased by 3.3 times, and its total volume is the lowest since 2012. At the same time, only 24% of the loan repayment plan (138,500,000,000 rubles) was fulfilled.