MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow believes that the US authorities should fully lift the trade-related sanctions imposed on Cuba, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
On Monday, during US President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, Cuban leader Raul Castro said that the current US administration's efforts to end the 55-year trade embargo on his country were positive but insufficient.
"The trends that we see, they have to be consistent… there has to be a full withdrawal of all unilateral sanctions," Zakharova said, as broadcast by the Lifenews television channel.
According to the spokeswoman, the US trade embargo does not affect Cuba’s political system as much as it hurts the island's general population. Due to the sanctions, regular Cuban citizens are being robbed of the opportunity to develop the country's economic, social and humanitarian spheres, Zakharova said.
The island nation’s economy was closely linked to that of the United States prior to the six-year Cuban Revolution that toppled the coup-imposed Batista regime in 1959. Obama announced the normalization of the countries' diplomatic ties in December 2014, leading to the gradual removal of the crippling sanctions in place against Cuba.