As readers all no doubt realize, Russia used to have a very close relationship with Cuba during the Cold War years. Some of us are old enough to remember how close we were to war with Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Presidency of John Kennedy. The link below (from a Russian military website) indicates that Russia is coming back to Cuba, but it is not likely going to lead to a missile crisis this time. The Russian presence may, however, result in your cell phone calls (and a whole lot more) being monitored by Russian intelligence agencies.
The link reports that the Chief of the Russian General Staff, General Nikolai Makarov, was recently in Cuba to visit his Cuban counterparts and “visit a number of military installations.” The primary such “military installation” mentioned in the link is the Lourdes Listening Station which extensively monitored radio communications in the USA for decades until it was reportedly closed down in 2001. This large facility covers 28 acres and once hosted “1000-1500 Russian engineers, technicians and military personnel.
It seems apparent that this Russian listening station in Cuba will be reopened soon. At a minimum, it would monitor microwave transmissions as well as “communications satellite downlinks and a wide range of shortwave and high-frequency transmissions.” Given the advances in technology since 2001, this listening station could spy on US electronic and phone conversation with a much-wider range than is acknowledged in this Russian military link to have occurred in 2001. Indeed, how hard would it be for the Russians to monitor all cell phone and WI-FI communications in the USA with this large listening station in Cuba? The Russians would surely try to obtain access codes for US military and intelligence agency traffic as well as critical corporate communications. Russian intelligence agencies will try to obtain such access codes via any means possible (cash payments to insiders, “honey-traps,” etc.).
Without a doubt, the Russians will do all they can to obtain access to any and all financial, monetary and inter-bank communications in the USA as well. Given that Russia, China and many other nations are increasingly calling for a new global currency to replace the debauched U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency, Wall Street’s banking/monetary information would be very high on Russia’s list of targeted data when this Cuban electronic listening station is reactivated. Personally, I don’t think the Chief of the Russian General Staff would have gone to Cuba merely to inspect this facility. It is my viewpoint that Russia has already decided to reopen it. Cuba would surely welcome the facility as it would gain much-needed income from renting this site to Russia.
If this former Russian facility really was shut down completely in 2001, it will take some time to reactivate it. However, I wonder how soon it will be until your cell phone conversations will be accessible to this Russian listening station? When it is activated, you will have two large government agencies monitoring your cell phone conversations. The National Security Agency (NSA), operated by the U.S. Government, has long monitored virtually all electronic communications in the USA according to various media reports. It now appears that Russia is poised to do the same thing. I wonder how one says “Hello” in Russian?
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20090915/156132390.html
