Santiago de Cuba.- “It is a great honor for me to be here and pay tribute to the Cuban heroes who gave their lives for their homeland,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko, vice president of the Government of the Russian Federation, after paying tribute before the monolith that treasures the ashes of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, the main architect of the Cuban-Russian relations. There he laid a wreath, as a culmination of the tribute he paid in the Santa Ifigenia patrimonial cemetery to José Martí, National Hero; and to Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Mariana Grajales, Father and Mother of the Homeland, respectively.
In statements to the press, the Vice-President of the Government of the Slavic giant highlighted the close friendship between both nations, while ratifying that “Russia will always be on Cuba's side and will assist it in the defense of its sovereignty”. In his tour of the National Monument, he was accompanied by the member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and its first secretary in the province, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia; by the governor of Santiago de Cuba, Manuel Falcón Hernández; and by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga.
During his stay in Cuba, Chernyshenko will co-chair the 22nd Meeting of the Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technical Collaboration. It is also noteworthy that the visit of the Russian delegation takes place in the year in which the 65th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the then Soviet Union and our country is being celebrated.
