The United States has allowed a Russian tanker loaded with crude oil to sail for Cuba despite a de facto American oil blockade on the energy-starved Caribbean island, the New York Times reported.
The Anatoly Kolodkin — reportedly carrying about 730,000 barrels of crude — was just off the eastern tip of Cuba and sailing at about 12 knots on Sunday, according to ship-tracking data. It is slated to arrive at the port of Matanzas on Tuesday, AFP reported.
Reversing his previous course, US President Donald Trump indicated some wiggle room in allowing oil into Cuba. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not,” Reuters quoted Trump as saying aboard Air Force One.
Cuba is in the grips of an economic crisis that worsened after January 3, when the US imposed a de facto fuel blockade on the island following the US ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — Cuba’s main regional ally and energy provider. Trump has threatened punitive tariffs on nations that sell oil to Havana and has publicly contemplated a “friendly takeover” of the Communist-ruled island. The Russian-flagged tanker would bring the first shipment of oil to Cuba since January 9. The nation’s 9.6 million residents have faced multiple island-wide blackouts due to the severe energy shortage.
The Anatoly Kolodkin departed Primorsk, Russia, on March 8. The British Royal Navy said on March 19 that it dispatched the warship HMS Mersey and a Wildcat helicopter to monitor the tanker’s movements. The Royal Navy added that a Russian naval ship escorted the tanker across the English Channel before the two Russian vessels separated at the western end of the Channel and the tanker continued into the Atlantic.
The New York Times, citing a US official briefed on the matter, reported that the US Coast Guard allowed the sanctioned vessel to sail to Cuba. The US had temporarily eased some sanctions on Russia earlier this month to help improve global oil flows that were disrupted amid broader geopolitical tensions, including the US-Israel war with Iran.
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
