In his latest “Reflections” column the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, blasted a report in a Russian newspaper that his country buckled to U.S. pressure and blocked former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden from traveling through Cuba to exile in Latin America.

In the article published on Wednesday Fidel Castro said the report in the Kommersant newspaper on Monday was a "lie" and "libel”, and blasted Kommersant as a well known "counter-revolutionary" and "mercenary" newspaper.

According to Kommersant, Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for exposing a U.S. government international surveillance program, had planned to fly to Havana from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport a day after arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.

Citing sources close to the U.S. State Department, the newspaper said the reason was that at the last minute Cuba told officials to stop Snowden from boarding the Aeroflot flight, after changing its mind due to pressure by the United States.

"It is obvious that the United States will always try to pressure Cuba, as it does with the U.N. or any other public or private institution in the world... but not for nothing has (Cuba) resisted and defended itself without a truce for 54 years and will continue to do so for as long as necessary," the Cuban leader wrote.

He also hailed Snowden and lashed out at U.S. spying as repugnant.

"I admire the courageous and just declarations of Snowden," he wrote, "In my opinion, he has rendered a service to the world having revealed the repugnantly dishonest policy of the powerful empire that is lying and deceiving the world."

Furthermore, the Cuban revolutionary also criticized recent pronouncements of the US government and several NATO allies urging military actions in Syria and warned of the dire consequences of such actions against the Near East country.