Russia to cancel Cuba’s $29 billion of Soviet debt [1]

Russia is going to write off 90 percent of Cuba's $32 billion Soviet-era debt as part of a deal to end a 20-year dispute, according to diplomatic sources cited by Reuters.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev agreed to write off [2] the island’s debt during a visit to Havana in February 2013, stressing details would be finalized by the end of the year.

Cuba defaulted on its debt to the Paris Club- a group of the world’s leading economies-Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US – in 1986. Cuba doesn’t belong to any international lending organizations, like the International Monetary Fund.

Cuba’s total exports of goods and services is about $18 billion, but its economy has been pinched by the 50-year trade embargo by the US, which Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has dubbed as "barbaric genocide" against Cubans, who generally live in poverty.

More on: RT.com [3]