Stephen Johnson, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere affairs (2007-2009): “As Europe contemplates admitting Ukraine into its union and talk of NATO expansion gets louder, Russia believes it has found a clever way to dial up the heat between itself and the West. Upgrading relations with bankrupt former proxies in Latin America in the hope that someone notices, is the latest in Moscow’s game of spite and malice with Washington and the West. In this iteration, Cuba is the main beneficiary, a serial debtor nation now in such straits that it is willing to concede 30-year land leases to Russian investors. While it isn’t clear what else Cuba has to contribute, Russia has promised help in reviving the island’s decrepit sugar industry, wheat shipments to stave off hunger and oil to keep the country’s jalopies running. Maybe the quid pro quo is Cuba’s recent support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Bottom line, it’s a familiar script. Russia hopes to challenge the consolidation of an expanding democratic front in Europe by complicating U.S. interests in the Americas. The problem is that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela do not…”