Havana-Moscow Relations: When Politics and Trade Depart

Abstract: Why has post-1992 Havana-Moscow trade been at a low level despite for several years the political relationship being cordial and the political will for trade to increase existing? The bilateral relationship since 1960 is examined using qualitative and quantitative analysis and a novel method: the use of the literature on the impact on trade of the colonisation and decolonisation processes. Resulting from Cuban economic dependence on the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1991. Despite the anti-colonial nature of revolutionary Cuba and the Soviet Union it is posited that connotations with a colonial trading relationship have 1) resulted in post-1992 Havana- Moscow trade displaying the general trends of the decolonisation process on trade between former colonies and metropoles, trade falls and does not increase; and 2) negated the political will for bilateral trade to increase. Subsequently, it is theorized that partial interconnectedness inadvertently emerged. An asymmetric bilateral relationship which politically can be conditioned by either country and is mutually beneficial, but economically the structures of economic colonialism and postcolonialism have unintentionally materialised. Therefore, these findings inform debates on legacies of the past, the post socialist space, the decolonisation process and bilateral trade and Havana and Moscow individually and in combination.