Russia, shaking off the legacy of Soviet foreign trade practices that often amounted to politically motivated largess, wants to put its relations with Cuba on a new commercial footing.


After the latest problems with a sugar-for-oil barter deal, with neither side meeting its commitments, senior Russian officials questioned the future of such inter-governmental accords but said political relations were not in danger.


Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin said the 1994 deal, under which Cuba agreed to supply Russia with one million tons of raw sugar in exchange for 2.5 million tons of oil, would be completed later than planned.


"We want to replace such inter-governmental agreements with commercial deals," he said. But he did not say if the annual barter deal would be renewed as planned at the end of this year.


Foreign Economic Relations Minister Oleg Davydov told the Kommersant Daily newspaper this week that Cuba had failed to ship 500,000 tons of this year's promised sugar.


"Half of the raw sugar promised to Moscow has been sold in third countries," Davydov was quoted as saying. He added that Russia now planned to sell its undelivered oil on the world market.


In Havana, the Cuban Foreign Trade Ministry said it had so far fulfilled the agreement and denied that it had sold sugar to third countries rather than meeting pact commitments.


Foreign Trade Ministry official Felix Loaces, quoted by the official Prensa Latina news agency, said Cuba had paid in sugar for the oil it had received and was prepared to honor all of its obligations.


But an official of Cuba's state sugar export firm Cubazucar said Cuba would not be able to deliver the outstanding amounts until about December or January, after the start of its coming 1994-95 harvest. Sugar trade sources in Moscow said the communist-ruled Caribbean island's 1993-94 harvest was 35 percent lower than the previous year's output.


Russian Fuel and Energy Minister Yury Shafranik said Cuba would receive oil only if it paid for it.


"What we have sent so far has been paid for with sugar. If they find the resources, we will deliver more. If there is money, there will be oil. If there is sugar, there will be oil." he said.


Cuba's trade with Moscow has fallen sharply, following the collapse of the Soviet-led trading bloc Comecon, and Shafranik made clear that the days when the Kremlin subsidized its allies for the sake of spreading its influence were over.


Moscow is owed tens of billions of dollars by former Soviet allies, mainly long-standing accounts for delivery of arms and for construction work carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. "Russia cannot afford the luxury of offering charity. Even with all the respect and the greatest desire in the world to work with Cuba, I think we cannot provide oil just like that," Shafranik said.


Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin saw no impact on political relations from the current trade problems.


"We have developed absolutely normal, predictable inter-state relations with Cuba. From the political point of view, we do not have any particular problems, not now, nor on the horizon," he said.


"In trade and economic relations, problems often arise with availability of goods, prices, discipline of deliveries and so on ... I am sure that in this case, there will be no effect on normal development of political contacts," he said.


Kommersant Daily said Russia would only consider negotiating fresh Cuban sugar deliveries when the new harvest "grows ears."


Foreign Trade Minister Davydov told Itar-Tass that if Russia had continued to ship oil to Cuba it would have amounted to an interest-free loan. "Russia is unable to consent to that in the current economic climate," he said.


But the minister said that, should Russia need to buy raw sugar after processing its own beet crop, it would be ready to discuss it with Cuba next year.