Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a media question at the Cuban Embassy, Moscow, November 29, 2016

Question: Could you give your view of Fidel Castro’s personal role in Russian-Cuban relations?

Sergey Lavrov: Fidel Castro was a great man in every way, and an outstanding personality. This especially concerns the Cuban people, to whom he devoted his whole life, work and plans, and to such universal values as the need for freedom, truth and justice. It was his indomitable will in promoting this approach and in achieving these eternal values that made Fidel Castro so popular and won him prestige around the world. Castro stood at the cradle of Cuban relations with the Soviet Union and with modern Russia.

I was lucky to have met him and talked to him on several occasions, when Fidel Castro was still working actively in 2004 and then during subsequent visits; when he retired, I visited Fidel Castro at his home. I remember these conversations as if they took place yesterday. I am confident that he did more than anyone else for the Cuban people and for our relations with Cuba. Fidel Castro made an enormous contribution to supporting morality in the international arena, something we all need right now.