NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from Havana on this week's visit to Cuba by Russian president Vladimir Putin. While the visit revived Cold War memories of Fidel Castro's Cuba as a Soviet client state, Russia is in no position now to renew the large scale aid Moscow once gave Havana. Russia now ranks fourth among Cuba's trading partners, and most of the commerce between the two countries is barter. While Putin joined Castro in denouncing a "unipolar" world order -- a reference to U.S. domination -- the Russian president did take the opportunity of saying he looks forward to working with the new Bush administration.
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