Showdown Looms As Putin Sends Tanker of Fuel Toward Cuba

As Cuba grapples with a catastrophic energy crisis and a collapsing power grid, President Vladimir Putin of Russia is testing the limits of President Trump’s embargo by sending Russian fuel toward the island. The standoff, now playing out in the Atlantic, highlights the severe humanitarian and economic toll of the U.S. blockade in Cuba, where more than 10 million people are currently without electricity.Two vessels originally bound for Cuba have taken different paths in response to mounting U.S. pressure. The Anatoly Kolodkin, a tanker carrying roughly 100,000 metric tons of crude oil, remains en route to the Cuban port of Matanzas in apparent defiance of the restrictions, The Financial Times reports.Meanwhile, a second ship, the Sea Horse, which is transporting about 27,000 metric tons of gas oil, abruptly updated its destination to Venezuela after the Treasury Department added Cuba to a list of countries restricted from taking delivery of Russian fuel, Bloomberg News reports.The fuel shortage has plunged Cuba’s economy into a free-fall, culminating in a nationwide blackout last week. The Trump administration has aggressively tightened sanctions, choking off funding and threatening tariffs on nations that provide energy aid to Havana. Mr. Trump himself recently escalated his rhetoric regarding the communist-run island, saying, “Whether I free it, take it, I could do anything I want with it [if] you want to know the truth.”An aid ship departed on Friday from the Mexican port of Progreso carrying medical supplies, food, and 73 solar panels for the paralyzed communist nation. The 75-foot fishing vessel, named the Granma 2.0, is part of a massive international effort to bypass the embargo by air, land, and sea. Activists from Italy, France, Spain, the United States and several Latin American countries arrived by air in Cuba on Friday with what they said was 20 tons of humanitarian aid. Even if the Russian crude oil arrives by its expected early April delivery date, experts warn it will offer only temporary relief. Energy expert Jorge Piñón said the shipment represents just more than a week’s worth of usable fuel. “We’re talking about crude oil that has to be refined into liquid fuels. … Each product has its specific demand,” he told the Associated Press.Still, Havana remains desperate for any assistance to reduce the strain on the electric grid and resume essential services. “I hope that some oil arrives in Cuba,” said Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Havana’s envoy to the United Nations, adding that the island’s power plants “are ready to produce electricity, and they cannot produce electricity because we don’t have oil.”The international community continues to carefully navigate the strict U.S. deterrence. Mexico recently halted official fuel shipments due to concerns over U.S. repercussions, although Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, insisted its prior assistance had been the result of a “sovereign decision.” The Kremlin has remained vague on the specific maritime movements, with presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov noting only that Moscow was “maintaining permanent contact with the Cuban leadership” to explore aid options.In another development, the Cuban government on Friday rejected a request by the U.S. Embassy in Havana to let it import diesel for its generators, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the AP.

Showdown Looms As Putin Sends Tanker of Fuel Toward Cuba

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