HAVANA — During another October 53 years ago, a young Fidel Castro played Cuba off the world’s two superpowers. The Soviets installed nukes on the island, the Americans demanded their removal, and Castro ended up with a U.S. promise not to invade, assuring the survival of his Cuban revolution.
This week it seemed like the Khrushchev era all over again, minus the scary red buttons. Moscow signed off on $1.4 billion in loans for a massive upgradeat two Cuban power plants. Russian cultural officials announced plans to build an art museum in the center of Havana. And Cuba’s state media cheered Russian airstrikes in Syria, depicting the intervention as a decisive, overdue effort to crush the Islamic State and end the civil war.
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