You certainly remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s. Who supported Cuba at the time? The Soviet Union. Why did the Soviet Union support it? Because it was a neighbor of the American enemy, which, just months before the crisis, had succeeded in establishing nuclear missile launchers in Turkey, on the border with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union supported the coup led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, placing thousands of missiles ready to launch on the island, just a few kilometers from the United States.
There is no free aid without direct interest. When I say aid, I don't mean humanitarian aid, as in wars and natural disasters, but rather economic and logistical support that strengthens the economy. Russia and the United States support their allies by providing various types of aid. The United States currently distributes military, financial, and logistical aid to all its allies around the world, to the point that this aid has become part of the general budget of some countries.
To be fair, it was a normal thing considering that USA was doing the exact same thing. Everyone talks about "Cuban missile crisis" but nobody talks about "Turkish military zone of USA" where they have literally a whole big camp there, with all nuclear missiles and planes and everything. It means, USA basically said to Russia "I can put nukes around you, but you can't get one near me", and created the chaos himself.
The options are obvious, either do not put nukes around your enemy, or be ready for him to put one around you. After Cuba became communist, do you really think that they have zero nukes? They do say there are none, but you really believe them? I guarantee you, Cuba has a lot to destroy some parts of USA and kill many people, all tied to Russians. Even if you remove Nukes out of he question, just the missiles they have, could wipe out Florida alone.