Russia has allocated one million dollars of the UN Development Program to fund the rebuilding of houses destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba, in 2012, announced the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The decision on funding that project is based on the friendship relations that

join the Russian and Cuban peoples, and it is aimed to strengthen the Russian strategic and multifaceted association with Cuba, said a communique from the Foreign Ministry. That step also shows Russia's growing role as donor State for contributing to the international development, revealed the communique.

According to the source, the allocation of financial aid to Cuba was decided by the Government through a decree signed by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, and it includes the rebuilding of hundreds of houses.

Cuban experts will also receive the international experience accumulated in organization and work matters, and the liquidation of the consequences of natural disasters, chiefly those related with earthquake risks and hurricane threats in the region, added the communique.

After its path through the eastern Cuban provinces on October 25, 2012, Hurricane Sandy left 11 dead, over a hundred injured, and considerably damage to houses, and the electricity and communications systems.