Trump Appears to Relax Oil Blockade on Cuba as Russian Tanker Arrives
US President Donald Trump has indicated a relaxation of the blockade on fuel supplies to Cuba following the arrival of a Russian tanker carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude oil to the Caribbean island.
According to Russia’s transport ministry, the tanker Anatoly Kolodkin docked at the port of Matanzas on Cuba’s northern coast on Monday, delivering the first crude oil shipment to the country in over three months amid an ongoing crisis.
“Russia considers it its duty not to stand aside, but to provide the necessary assistance to our Cuban friends,”Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
Peskov also noted that the matter had been discussed
“with our American partners”prior to the delivery.
On Sunday, Trump, who has been exerting pressure on Cuba’s communist government by restricting its access to fuel, suggested he chose not to block the tanker’s arrival. The vessel had departed from the Baltic port of Primorsk in early March.
“If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem, whether it’s Russia or not,”the US president stated to reporters aboard Air Force One.
Cuba, home to approximately 10 million people, has faced intensified sanctions under Trump’s administration. These measures include blocking Venezuelan oil shipments following the abduction of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and discouraging other nations such as Mexico and Brazil from supplying oil to Cuba.
Critics argue these actions have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis on the already economically strained island. The shortages have forced the closure of schools and universities, disrupted the healthcare system, and severely impacted the tourism sector. Fuel scarcities have led to unusually quiet streets, with some residents adapting creatively; one mechanic reportedly modified a Fiat engine to operate on charcoal.
“We haven’t received a drop of fuel for nearly four months,”Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel said in an interview last week with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. He attributed the shortages to US
“anger”over the failure of decades-long attempts to
“seize control of Cuba”since the 1959 revolution.
Behind-the-Scenes Negotiations and Political Maneuvering
Behind closed doors, high-level negotiations between US and Cuban officials have been underway. The US appears interested in identifying a pliable successor to Díaz-Canel, akin to Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
Rodríguez, who served as vice-president under Maduro and assumed power after Maduro’s rendition to the US, has facilitated a significant thaw in Washington-Caracas relations and implemented major economic concessions.
Among those considered potential
“Delcy-esque”figures in Cuba is Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the millennial grandson of the 94-year-old former Communist party chief Raúl Castro. Another candidate is Cuba’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign trade and investment, who recently announced plans to allow Cubans living abroad to invest in the island, aiming to foster
“a dynamic business environment.”
Trump’s Position on Russian Oil Delivery
On Sunday, Trump dismissed the notion that Russia’s oil shipment would rescue Cuba’s embattled leadership.
“Cuba’s finished. They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil, it’s not going to matter,”the US president said. He added that he supported the delivery
“because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things.”
