Obama is in Cuba. Cuba is a former Soviet satellite nation, and still has good relations with Russia. Is there any danger that Putin will have his agents try and damage Obama?

Putin is not in love with the USA enough to make that a reality. He understands very well Napoleon’s dictum to “Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

And having Obama as our president is our mistake.

It didn’t even cross my mind. So, no, I don’t think anything bad will happen to Obama in Cuba.

What would be the point? Obama is no bigger threat to Putin and Russia than any foreseeable replacement, and has a great deal more sense than the great majority of those seeking his office.

No.

The U.S. attempts to improve relationships with Cuba have less to do with Pres. Obama and more to do with geo political pragmatism.

There is no chance of real good relations between Cuba and US as long as Fidel Castro is alive, but there is a reasonable chance when he is gone. The Russians can’t afford to adequately support the Cuban economy (they wrote off about 30 billion in debt a couple of years ago. They need us, and it is in our interest that they join “the Americas”

An opportunity exists to bring the Cubans back into the Western sphere. The idea is not the President’s original notion. There have been plenty of essays on the topic in Foreign Affairs for decades but especially since the Soviet Union fell apart.

The next president will continue the effort, whomever that person may be. And if the Russians would interfere, the effort will increase in urgency. Plus, there is no longer the Cuba/Berlin standoff that existed before the collapse of the SU

Cuba is more of a liability than an asset to the Russians. Putin is best off confining his aggression to neighboring countries.

Obama is in more personal danger while in the States than he is in Cuba. There, he has both the American Secret Service and the Dirección General De Inteligencia on down to every street cop protecting his ass. Trust me. They don’t want anything to happen to any world leader of such stature on their watch, in their country. The whole thing is probably a huge pain in the ass to them.

As far as Putin goes, he doesn’t want anything to happen to him ether. Not with crazies like Trump waiting in the wings. Putin’s goals are much easier met with an appeasing America, not the nest of wasps we would become if we could trace a presidential assassination to him. He’s sociopathic, libidinous, narcissistic, avaricious, mendacious and monomegalomaniacal, but he’s not crazy.

The 1960’s called. They want their political news back. Things have changed. Putin doesn’t want Obama dead. WTH people. The pissing match that Kennedy started is over. The Cold War is OVER. no wonder the US is getting leaders like Trump. No one else there has been paying attention to actual, real world events since OJ’s Bronco was chased.

I prefer to enjoy this historic event and offer kudos to President Obama for opening relations with Cuba, something that should have been done decades ago, rather than to indulge in negative speculation.

@Pachy GA! I agree with you 100%. To paraphrase a meme, “Naysayers gonna say ‘nay’!”

@cazzie @Pachy @Yetanotheruser Yes.

The 55-year-old boycott, if one is going to go by our government’s reasoning that Cuba represented a symbol Soviet influence in the Western Hemisphere has been irrelevant for the last 25 of those years. We gave our former war enemy, Vietnam, a nation listed as communist by the CIA, Most Favored Nation trading status (now called Permanent Normal Trade Relation status) in 2001. This is long overdue.

The story of why it is overdue illuminates one of America’s most dmaging undemocratic weaknesses: Lobbying by the rich and powerful against the interests of the people.