During my 12 years living in Cuba, I waited in all kinds of lines: lines to buy groceries, lines to pay bills, lines just because people were waiting for something worth waiting for. But now I was waiting in line for something unexpected: to board a Russian warship docked in Havana harbor. When a Russian diplomat told me that the frigate Admiral Gorshkov would be offering tours to the public for three days starting Thursday, I was a bit skeptical.
The Gorshkov is one of the most modern ships in the Russian fleet, capable of firing hypersonic missiles at speeds of more than 9,600 kilometers per hour. It was unimaginable that Vladimir Putin’s most prized ship would be available to everyone. The Gorshkov, upon its arrival in Cuba on Wednesday, fired a deafening 21-gun salute. The Cuban side responded with artillery fire from an 18th-century fortress overlooking the harbor that the Spaniards built to protect the city from pirates. The frigate was accompanied by rescue tugboats, a fuel boat and the impressive nuclear submarine Kazan. The Cuban Defense Ministry said none of the vessels were carrying nuclear weapons and posed a “threat to the region,” an apparent reference to the United States, Cuba’s neighbor 90 miles to the north. But for many Cubans, the flotilla’s visit — the largest in years for the former Cold War allies — felt like a throwback, especially as Russia and the U.S. clash over the Ukraine war escalates.
“I never thought I’d see Russian submarines so close,” said a Cuban man next to me as we waited in line for four submarines. We stood in front of Havana’s port terminal, which just a few years ago was filled with U.S. cruise ships, until then-President Donald Trump banned them from the island in 2019. A line had formed, but it was unclear whether those waiting there would be able to board. An hour passed under the scorching Cuban sun. “We do deep frying here,” said a woman holding a small baby next to me. Cubans are so good at waiting in line that I was worried I’d have nothing to show for it except a bad sunburn by the time we left port. Finally, a Cuban naval officer in a crisp white military uniform came out to talk to us and put his hand on my shoulder. “You can board, but you must leave any sharp objects behind, like knives, scissors or clippers,” he said.
Two plainclothes national security officers began scanning everyone’s ID numbers through a database on their cellphones. I handed my ID showing where I was from in the United States to one of the officers, who looked too young to have shaved his beard. He looked at my ID and asked his senior for advice. “Would you allow a foreigner on board?” he asked. The older officer in the New York Yankees baseball cap nodded and entered my ID information into a database. “You can continue,” he said. At the port, Russian sailors in navy blue uniforms waited past officials operating metal detectors as our group of about 20 people waited to board the Gorshkov.
The sailors held up a sign in front of the ship that read in English that the Gorshkov’s “primary purpose” was “combat operations against enemy surface ships and submarines.” The Russian sailors spoke more English than Spanish, and I occasionally translated to help the other members of our group, who were all Cuban. We were allowed to film, and we quickly whipped out our smartphones to take videos and selfies. We started at the ship’s huge helipad and walked through the interior to the bow, where Russian sailors stood guard every few meters. At the bow, one of the sailors showed me the missile defense system used in case of an attack.
I asked about the huge cannon, and the sailor replied that it could fire shells up to a distance of 23 kilometers, or about 15 miles. On a higher level, there appeared to be sensitive communications equipment, while Russian soldiers in tactical gear stood with assault rifles at their sides, peering down at us. Just outside the bow, we had an unobstructed view of the 430-foot-long submarine Kazan stretching out to port. I noticed one of the Russian sailors enjoying the blue skies and calm seas around us.
“Is Cuba good?” I asked him. “Cuba was good,” he replied, laughing and giving me a thumbs up. The war in Ukraine has severely weakened the Russian fleet, and the U.S. and Russia are once again on opposing sides of a bloody conflict. For Russian sailors, Cuba may be the best place to be these days. I was preparing to depart a Russian warship in Havana, feeling like the Cold War was no longer a distant memory, when I saw an alarm flash on my cell phone. The announcement was that the Department of Defense had sent its own nuclear attack submarine to the other side of the island, the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, more than 500 miles from the pier where the Russian ship had been removed.
