Trump allowed a Russian tanker to reach Cuba: ‘One ship means nothing to them. They’re done’

The US blocked Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after the January 3 ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and President Trump threatened to impose high tariffs on any country that supplies oil to the Caribbean country. Mexico, along with Venezuela, the largest exporter of oil to Cuba, subsequently suspended deliveries.

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Last time in Cuba. not a single tanker has arrived for three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, further deepening the energy crisis that has led to strict fuel rationing and a series of power outages in the country of 10 million. Cuban health officials state that the crisis has increased the risk of mortality for Cubans who are being treated for cancer, especially for children.

Addressing reporters on the presidential plane Air Force One, Trump expressed his sympathy for the Cuban people and their need for energy, stressing that he is not worried that eventual aid would Cuba could support the communist government in Havana because it predicted that it would soon fall by itself.

– If some country wants to send some oil to Cuba now, I don’t mind, whether it’s Russia or not. Cuba is over. They have a bad regime. They have a very bad and corrupt leadership, and the fact that they will get one oil tanker means nothing at all. I would rather let it (tanker) go, regardless of whether it is Russian or belongs to someone else, because people need heating and cooling and all other necessary things – said Trump.

Expressing concern for the Cubans, Trump also made a series of threatening statements against the Cuban government and said that he would pay more attention to that country, only 150 kilometers from the American coast, after dealing with Iran.

Enough oil for a month

In mid-March, the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russia in order to increase oil supplies that had been limited by the US-Israeli war against Iran. However, the measure included exceptions that explicitly prohibited transactions with Cuba and others, such as Iran, North Korea, and Crimea.

Tanker Anatolij Kolodkin sailed from the Russian port of Primorsk carrying about 650 thousand barrels of oil, data on maritime transport of the LSEG company showed. According to other reports, there are 730 thousand barrels on board.

The official Cuban newspaper Cubadebate called the Russian delivery a direct challenge to the US oil blockade, after a sanctioned vessel escorted by the Russian Navy passed through the English Channel on its way to the Caribbean.

Citing an unnamed US official briefed on the situation, the New York Times reported on Sunday that the US Coast Guard had allowed the sanctioned tanker to sail to Cuba, although the reason was not clear. But blocking the tanker by force could have led to an escalation of the conflict with Russia at a sensitive geopolitical moment, notes Reuters.

Anatoly Kolodkin’s arrival in Cuba is significant because the British government has allowed another sanctioned Russian tanker, VAYA 1, to pass through the English Channel after announcing last week that it had authorized the military to enter all such vessels passing through British waters, said Brett Erickson of consultancy Obsidian Risk Advisors.

Russia is benefiting enormously from the war in Iran, and now it has the opportunity to deliver much-needed oil to Cuba, whose strategic importance for Moscow has increased since the fall of its allies in Syria and Venezuela and at the time of the attack on Iran, Erickson said.

Havana can function with relatively little oil. Barrels from Kolodkin are enough for about two and a half weeks of Cuban needs, but they can be stretched to about a month, considering rationing, according to the expert.