Russia's Lavrov needles Biden over Cuban missile crisis and Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin's foreign ministry criticized Joe Biden on Sunday (30 October) over Ukraine. He said that he hoped the US president would have the wisdom to handle a global conflict similar to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

Russia's invasion in Ukraine has been the most significant confrontation between Moscow, Washington and the West since the Cuban crisis, when the Soviet Union was on the brink of nuclear war.

John Kennedy, then-US president, discovered that Soviet leader Nikita Chrushchev had planted nuclear missiles in Cuba following the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. This was a US-backed effort by Cuban exiles overthrow Communist rule. The US also deployed missiles in Italy.

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, said that there were many similarities to 1962 in the context of the missile crisis. This was largely due to Russia's threat from Western weapons in Ukraine.

Lavrov stated that he hoped President Joe Biden would have more opportunities in today's environment to learn who gives orders and how. "This is very troubling."

Lavrov said that the difference was that Kennedy and Khrushchev had the courage to take responsibility and show wisdom in distant 1962. Now, however, we don't see Washington and its satellites showing such readiness.

The spokesperson for the White House National Security Council declined comment on Lavrov’s statements, but pointed to previous comments regarding keeping communication lines open with Moscow.

Monday's phone conversation between the top U.S. generals and Russian generals was the first since May. It came a day after the US defense ministers spoke for the second time in three consecutive days, after having not spoken since May.

The world was close to nuclear war on 27 October, 1962 when a Soviet submarine captain tried to launch a nuclear weapon, after the US Navy had dropped depth charges.

Later that day Kennedy secretly agreed with Khrushchev to remove all missiles from Turkey in return for Khrushchev's removal of all missiles from Cuba. Although the crisis was quickly resolved, it became a symbol for the dangers of superpower rivalry during the Cold War.

Vladimir Putin points out that the West has dismissed Russian concerns about security in post-Soviet Europe and, in particular, the expansion of NATO's military alliance eastwards as some of the reasons for the conflict.

The United States and its European allies claim that Russian concerns are exaggerated and do not justify an invasion of a former Soviet neighbor whose borders Moscow recognized after 1991's collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine declares it will fight until Russia is expelled from its territory. This casts Russia's big power diplomacy in a disgraceful attempt to distract from an imperial-style land grab Kyiv claims is doomed.

Lavrov was asked what Russia should do in the current crisis and he replied: "The readiness of Russia, including President Vladimir Putin for negotiations, remains unchanged."

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