Putin compares U.S. missile plan to Cuban missile crisis

Russian president Vladimir Putin compared a U.S. plan to create a missile defense system in Europe to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Said Putin at a press conference on Friday following a summit between the European Union and Russia:

"Analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, prompted the 'Caribbean crisis,'" Putin said, using the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis.

"For us the situation is technologically very similar. We have withdrawn the remains of our bases from Vietnam, from Cuba, and have liquidated everything there, while at our borders, such threats against our country are being created," he said.

Putin’s comments came two days after U.S. president George W. Bush spoke out on Cuban policy. In a speech at the State Department, Bush emphasized the urgency of supporting dissident movements and called on other countries to back democratic change on the island.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque replied to Bush’s speech by saying that it indicated his “personal hatred toward Cuba” and dismissed a domestic uprising on Cuba as a “fantasy”.

Image- BBC News

Sources- Associated Press, Sydney Morning Herald, Guardian UK