HAVANA, October 17. /TASS/. The current international tensions are posing more risks to the world than the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, while Washington’s opportunistic policy has been escalating things, Juan Sanchez Monroe, a full professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations of Havana, told TASS.

"Today’s situation has gone further than the October crisis (the local name for the Cuban Missile Crisis - TASS). Then there were political disputes, more verbal, but today political disputes are being accompanied with sabre-rattling, with shootings taking place and people getting killed. An additional and very negative aspect of the current crisis is that almost no talks are being held, while there were negotiations throughout the October crisis. When diplomacy does not work, only weapons can solve the problem, and this is what takes the conflict far closer to the fire," Sanchez said.

He listed Washington’s aggressive foreign policy to deter other countries among the reasons behind the escalation. "The aggression and opportunism of the policy of imperialism were key in both the October crisis and the current one. In the former, the US administration and political elites were set to put an end to the revolutionary process in Cuba, while today we can see attempts being made by the same forces to block Russian sovereignty from developing," he noted. "The fundamental difference between the current developments and the situation of the past is that the Cuban government pursued the policy of protecting sovereignty, national independence and social justice, while the ruling elites in Ukraine are reactionist, anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-American."

According to Sanchez, Russia’s adversaries are attempting to spin the escalation in Ukraine beyond its borders and have been encouraging Moscow to take more resolute steps against infrastructure in Kiev. "What happened with the gas pipelines, the Crimean bridge, are elements that bring the conflict, which until now has been developing on the territory of Ukraine, to the level of infrastructure outside of it. The two incidents significantly aggravated the international situation," the expert believes.

Cuban Missile Crisis

October 16, 1962 is the date when military and political confrontation began between the Soviet Union and the US. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most acute Cold War crises when two superpowers drew close to a nuclear war. The crisis emerged after the Soviet Union deployed intermediate-range missiles and troops in Cuba in response to the deployment of US missiles in Turkey and threats of a US invasion in Cuba.