At SPIEF 2026, There Is A Russia-Cuba Business Dialogue. But, Not On The Official Program And Not At The Venue.

/

Although remaining unpublished on the official schedule for the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) from 3 June 2026 to 6 June 2026, the Russia-Cuba Business Dialogue was held at 8:00 am on 4 June 2026 at St. Petersburg State University. Presiding, as he did at SPIEF 2025, was Mr. Azer Talibov, Chairman of the Russia-Cuba Business Council.

Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment of the Republic of Cuba, who participated in SPIEF 2025, and Ernesto Rodriguez Hernandez, First Deputy Minister of Communications of the Republic of Cuba, are the only officials of the government of the Republic of Cuba publicly identified on the program for SPIEF 2026.

A scheduled Russia-Cuba Business Dialogue disappeared from the official SPIEF 2026 schedule. 

Deputy Prime Minister Fraga is now one of seven (7) speakers during a seventy-five (75) minute Russia-Latin America Business Dialogue.  The speaker list is in alphabetical order, so the deputy prime minister is listed last- symbolically reinforcing his significance 

First Deputy Minister Rodriguez is one of nine speakers on the panel, Technologies Shaping the Future Turnkey Digital Sovereignty: Mutually Beneficial Prospects. 

Thus far in 2026, despite rhetoric professing the opposite, the government of the Russian Federation has remained reticent to provide consistent and meaningful commercial, economic, energy, financial, military, and political support to the government of the Republic of Cuba.