EUROPEAN FOUNDATION INTELLIGENCE DIGEST - September 2008 EXTRACTS 1. Russian analyst says Cuban base should be reopened The head of the Department for Disarmament and Conflict Resolution in the Institute for World Economics and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Pikayev, has said that Russia should re-open a listening and surveillance base in Cuba, which used to cover the whole USA, in retaliation for the American decision to install anti-missile radars and launchers in the Czech Republic and Poland or Lithuania. The electronic surveillance facility, which used to be near Havana, was shut down in October 2001 in a friendly gesture by Moscow towards the West in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. That gesture has never been reciprocated and the West has only become ever more anti-Russian since, from the Russians' viewpoint. Pikayev said "Cuba is a unique place to gather intelligence on the United States. I believe that the reopening of this station is both possible and necessary amid the threat that the Americans are creating for Russia. Russia has every right to respond." The facility covered 28 square miles and employed over one thousand Russian technicians and engineers; it enabled Russia to monitor communications in the US and between the US and Europe. [RIA Novosti, 23 July 2008]