Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel today led a solemn ceremony in the capital to mark the 65th anniversary of relations between Russia and the Caribbean nation.
At the event, which took place in the Duma (parliament) in Moscow, the head of state was accompanied by the Cuban delegation taking part in the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

Valentina Matvienko, President of the Senate (upper house of Parliament) and Alexei Shaposhnikov, head of the Moscow Duma, led the Russian delegation.

The legislator referred to the importance of the fact that precisely on the eve of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, six and a half decades of uninterrupted relations between the two countries are being commemorated.

Matvienko added that despite the geographical distance between Cuba and Russia, there is agreement in the area of maintaining the historical truth against those who try to forget or change it.

Russia will always stand by Cuba in its struggle against the US economic, commercial and financial blockade, and against the inclusion of the Caribbean nation on the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism, Matvienko said.

She also recalled that she belongs to the generation that learned songs dedicated to Cuba, and that she knows symbolic phrases such as «Patria o Muerte» (Homeland or Death).

The leader of the Senate also highlighted the opening of a photographic exhibition at the Moscow Duma, which covers the events of 65 years of bilateral ties.