(BBC News) A Russian tanker carrying oil to Cuba has entered the waters off the Communist-run island, Russian news agencies report.
The oil shipment – the first to reach Cuba since January – comes hours after US President Donald Trump said that he had no problem with countries, including Russia, sending supplies to the island.
Trump’s remark appeared to signal a loosening of a de facto oil blockade his administration had imposed on Cuba since January.
Cuba has been experiencing a series of nation-wide blackouts as the blockade exacerbated existing fuel shortages.
Russian media reports the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin was carrying a “humanitarian shipment” of 100,000 tonnes of crude oil.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) had warned that severe fuel shortages meant that Cuban hospitals were struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services.
Cuba’s situation has deteriorated rapidly since January 3, when US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro – a staunch ally of the Cuban government – who had been providing the island with oil under highly preferential terms.
Trump also threatened to impose tariffs on any nation sending oil to Cuba.
Just over a week ago, the US Treasury Department added Cuba to a list of countries barred from receiving oil deliveries from Russia.
But in an apparent reversal of his strategy, Trump told journalists on board Air Force One on Sunday that he had “no problem” with Russia delivering oil to Cuba.
“We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need… they have to survive,” he said.
It was not clear from Trump’s comment whether this represented a permanent reversal of the fuel blockade policy or just a temporary softening – especially as Trump appeared to double down again on his threats towards the government in Havana, telling journalists on Sunday that “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 Russian tanker is expected to offload the oil in Matanzas terminal in the coming hours.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that Russia considered it “its duty to step up and provide necessary assistance to our Cuban friends.”
He added that the shipment had been “raised well in advance… with our American counterparts.”
The Cuban authorities have portrayed the arrival of the Russian tanker as “breaking” the US-imposed oil blockade.
The oil the Russian tanker carries is expected to provide Cuba with a short-term lifeline.
Its Communist government, led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, has been in talks with the Trump administration to try to find a route out of the crisis.
But both sides have publicly set out a number of political and economic red lines that make it hard to see where they could find common ground.
Trump recently said he could “take” Cuba, while the island’s leadership has said it refuses to accept any enforced changes to the personnel or political direction of its government.
Cuba was already facing its worst economic and energy crisis since the end of the Cold War due to a combination of a drop in tourism after the coronavirus pandemic and government economic mismanagement.
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