The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out the legal nullity of the charges against Raul Castro.

The charges brought by the United States against former Cuban leader Raul Castro are null and void, since the 1996 incident with American private jets was settled by an agreed statement from the UN Security Council (SC). This was announced on October 26 by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

"We recall this episode of Russian-American interaction at the United Nations precisely in order to emphasize the legal nullity of the charges being brought against Cuba's historical leader, R. Castro," the ministry said in a commentary on its website.

Zakharova recalled that after the incident with American private jets in 1996, Russia and the United States, during consultations at the UN Security Council, agreed on a statement that did not contain personal accusations and calls for "taking measures to hold anyone accountable." She noted that this approach formed the basis of UN Security Council resolution S/RES/1067 (1996) of July 26, 1996.

"This de facto meant the agreement of all Council members that the incident had been resolved in this part," Zakharova said.

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On October 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia categorically condemns the issuance of an arrest warrant for Raul Castro by a judge in Miami and expresses its strong rejection of this step. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that the legal and political assessments of the February 1996 aviation incident, blamed by the American side on the former Cuban leader, have already been fixed in the UN Security Council resolution, which did not provide for bringing anyone to personal responsibility.

A court in South Florida issued an arrest warrant for Castro on October 19. Besides Castro, five other persons are present in the indictment: the pilot of the fighter that shot down the planes, Lorenzo Alberto Perez-Perez, officers of the Cuban Air Force and Air Defense Command, Emilio Jose Palacio Blanco, Jose Fidel Gual Barzaga and Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez, as well as the pilot of the second fighter, Luis Raul Gonzalez-Pardo Rodriguez.