US President Donald Trump has said that the US would not enforce a blockade of crude oil into Cuba as a loaded Russian oil tanker arrived on the Caribbean Island.
Russia had said that it was sending a “humanitarian shipment” of 100,000 tons of crude oil arriving in Cuba on Monday, Russian state outlet RIA Novosti said, citing the country’s Ministry of Transport.
The sanctioned Anatoly Kolodkin vessel was reportedly waiting to unload the shipment shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had “no problem” with a Russian crude tanker delivering fuel to Cuba.
Trump's recent comments, made from his Air Force One, seem to be a U-Turn from his administration's enforced blockade of oil into 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 said as he was returning to Washington after a weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
The arrival of the Anatoly Kolodkin over the weekend also tests how far the Kremlin would go to help its ally, which lies close to US territory, the Washington Post reported.
The vessel departed from Primorsk Russian on March 8 carrying around 730,000 barrels of crude oil.
The thousands of barrels are set to provide major relief for Cuba. The president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, said that the country did not receive any oil imports for three months, leading to strict rationing, which led to a major energy and power shortage crisis on the island.
Cuba had lost it main regional oil supplier and ally when the US captured Venezuela's president Maduro. Trump had later declared that he expects Cuba’s communist government to fall, threatening to impose tariffs on any country that assists the country.
The Anatoly Kolodkin has arrived in Cuba while there are sanctions against Russia by the US, EU and the UK.
Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said last week that Moscow would continue supplying fuel to Cuba, showing defiance against U.S. restrictions.