THE UNITED NATIONS, October 31. /TASS/. Russia urges UN General Assembly to support the resolution demanding to lift economic, trade and financial blockade from Cuba, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday.
"We resolutely condemn the US embargo against Cuba and demand to lift it fully and immediately," Nebenzya said. Moscow considers US blockade against Cuba as "an odious relic of the Cold War and a flagrant example of illegitimate unilateral sanctions measures." "We consider this unlawful practie as a counter-productive and groundless anachronism that goes against the goal of progressive development of international cooperation," the diplomat added.
Despite Washington's admission that attempts to isolate Havana failed, the blockade remains in place, inflicting serious harm on Cuba's economy and preventing its citizens from legally exercising their rights for decent living conditions, the diplomat said. "Apart from that, several restrictions eased by the previous US adminitration have still not been lifted in full, which creates serious obstacles for Cuba on the path to full-scale integration into the international financial and economic structure, and hampers developing effective cooperation with foreign partners," Nebenzya said.
"The impossibility of Cuba's inclusion in international credit associations, and excluding it from the normal system of inter-governmental payments makes it harder for Cuba to access foreign loans and generally accepted methods of payment for export-import transactions, which decreases Cuba's purchasing power and hampers trade growth," the diplomat added.
He expressed hope that the current US administration will not freeze the process of normalizing Cuban-US relations. "We proceed from the assumption that accumulated positive experience from rapprochement between Washington and Havane will be maintained and qualitatively developed in the sense of resolving principal issues of bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect," Nebenzya said. "The Russian delegation will vote in support of the resolution demanding to fully lift the blockade," he concluded.