While Cubans stand in BREAD LINES, Castro buys brand new presidential jet

[El_Jibaro]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4793048.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 10 March 2006, 13:54 GMT
While Cubans stand in BREAD LINES, Castro buys brand new presidential jet



The luxury plane was exported to Havana from Russia

Cuba is buying one of Russia's most up-to-date airliners, carefully crafted for President Fidel Castro's personal comfort.

The purchase is part of an initial Cuban order for two brand new Ilyushin planes worth $110 million (£63 million) which Russian officials say is a shot in the arm for their struggling airline industry.

To head off criticism that a new presidential jet is an expensive luxury in austere times, Cuba says one of its new planes is being used to ferry workers to and from Venezuela.
To finance the deal, Cuba has paid 15% of the total sum up front, the rest coming from a 10-year loan from Russian banks.

Creature comforts

Russian NTV Mir television said the designers at Ilyushin had worked hard to give Mr Castro as smooth and secure a journey as possible.

"This is a sofa bed on which he can spend his hours of rest or read a book from his own library. Everything has been designed to be as ergonomic as possible, with a personal reading lamp," designer Aleksandr Kuchukhidze told the channel.


Designers have used beige colours throughout the plane

Principal interior designer Anton Nikolayev added: "Beige colours will predominate. Business meetings and talks can be held here."

The station showed the little luxuries the president could expect: a DVD player, drinks bar and leather seats. But security is paramount too: the plane comes with armoured ****pit doors and a system for making bombs safe.

Export breakthrough

The report showed the Ilyushin Il-96-300, built in Voronezh, being handed over at Havana's Jose Marti airport. It said the order was one of the biggest the Voronezh Ilyushin plant had secured this decade.

"These are the first Russian civilian aircraft to have been exported in the last 15 years," Ilyushin finance director Aleksandr Rubtsov said.

"We are convinced that Cuba can become a springboard for exporting our planes, above all in the countries of Latin America."

Russia and Cuba plan to sign another contract in Cuba on 10 March for the supply of a further five airliners, for an undisclosed sum.

Cuba has been a key customer of Soviet-built aircraft - whether civilian Ilyushins or military MiGs - since the Cold War era.

Even today, Cuban pilots for the newest Ilyushins are being trained in Russia, and Ilyushin engineers are in to Havana to school ground crews on maintaining the planes.

That is the luxury the richest man in Latin America (with half a Billion Dollars in Swiss Bank Accounts), who funds and directs the Puerto Rican independence movement leads...

[Yujike]

I can not believe it, Fidel goes around in a brand spanking new jet plane while Cubans suffer while our Dubya goes around in a re-built Cessna flying over the Katrina disaster ready to help our fellow citizens in need. And the communist guy sends all those Dr.'s to help disaster areas in the Americas and no Cuban died on the last hurricane, that is way too much organization. They have a lot to learn from our FEMA brilliant minds.That darn Fidel, universal health care for all Cubans and he says that our senior citizens try to decipher the Medicare B disaster and buy more dog food to survive?, I hate that Fidel guy. All that $ Fidel gives to his commanders and our Dubya only provides relief for the richest people in society, Halliburton and the CArlyle Group, not true, when is Castro going to learn!! While our Bush has No Child Left Behind to help our youth the Cuban students consistenly score at the top of all students in the Universe, in all academic areas, what a joke! And to top it all Cuba takes care of ALL their ports, he does not know that Dubai does a better job... and cheaper!! I can stand that Fidel when he calls Dubya a first class world terrorist, he does not know he IS the biggest terrorist on earth!!

[Yujike]

Go live with Bush servantboy, take Cheney to his hunting soirees, trash the poor people of the world you superior Naziboy. Keep on bringing those deviants into the classroom without the parent's consent. I wonder what you teach your own poor little son- I pity him for having such a wacked job for a father.