According to Russian news agency Interfax, the Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin has entered Cuban waters.
According to Marine Traffic, the ship, which has been subject to sanctions by the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, is believed to be heading to the Cuban port of Matanzas.
The ship’s arrival comes after U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters late Sunday night that he had “no problem” with Russia supplying oil to the island, and had previously threatened to impose tariffs on the communist country’s foreign oil suppliers.
If delivered, the 100,000 tons of crude aboard the ship would be the first private foreign oil shipment to reach Cuba since the Trump administration’s oil blockade of the island began in January.
The United States allowed private companies to import fuel to the island, but these supplies were minimal compared to island-wide demand.
Tensions between Havana and Washington have defined relations between the two countries since the 1959 Cuban revolution and the subsequent nationalization of American assets in the Caribbean country. But the long-running conflict has escalated in recent months after the White House forcibly removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power and detained him in the United States.
Maduro has been a staunch ally of the current Cuban regime, and Venezuela is Cuba’s main oil supplier.
Even while the U.S. and Cuban governments were engaged in diplomatic talks, that did not stop senior officials in Washington from repeatedly threatening the Cuban communist leadership with regime change.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that solving Cuba’s problem requires changing who is in charge and changing the system that runs the country.
Rubio also blamed the Cuban government rather than U.S. sanctions for the island’s oil shortage, accusing the country of wanting foreign countries to supply them with oil for free. Perhaps this was the case with Maduro and the former Soviet Union.
Both countries provided the island with heavily subsidized oil shipments at below-market prices, but Cuba supplied the Soviet Union with sugar and sent medical experts to Venezuela in return for oil.
The Cuban government blames U.S. sanctions for this crisis.
Nonetheless, fuel shortages on the island have created a serious humanitarian crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month that “collapse” would be imminent if oil did not reach the island.
Cuban hospitals had to cancel emergency surgeries due to lack of power, and Cubans burned firewood to cook their food.
Featured image: Current Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Cuban President Raul Castro, 2015.
Image source: Presidential Press and Information Office via Wikimedia Commons
patent: Creative Commons License
