Donald Trump has shifted course on U.S. policy toward Cuba. The president announced he will no longer block oil shipments to the island nation. This is because a Russian tanker carrying crude oil prepares to dock at a Cuban port. The reversal comes after months of aggressive U.S. efforts to choke off Cuba’s energy supply. It had left the country grappling with severe fuel shortages, widespread blackouts, and strict rationing.
Donald Trump says US will allow Russian tankers to go to Cuba
Donald Trump expressed sympathy for Cuba’s energy needs. The president said he was unconcerned with any assistance the shipments might provide to the Communist government in Havana. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Trump dismissed the idea that allowing the shipments would help sustain Cuba’s leadership, predicting instead that the government would soon collapse on its own. “Cuba is 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,” Trump said. “I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things that you need,” he added.
The Anatoly Kolodkin is expected to reach port on Monday carrying between 650,000 and 730,000 barrels of crude. The shipment is made as a lifeline for Cuba’s struggling economy. The country has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Miguel Diaz-Canel. It worsened an energy crisis that has forced strict gasoline rationing and triggered repeated blackouts across the nation of 10 million people.
The U.S. cut off Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after toppling Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Trump had previously threatened to impose punishing tariffs on any country that sent crude to Cuba. In response, Mexico, which is one of Cuba’s largest suppliers alongside Venezuela, halted its shipments (via Reuters).
