Russia plans to send soon oil and oil products to Cuba as part of humanitarian aid, the Russian embassy in Cuba told Russian media on Thursday.
Cuba’s worsening economic and humanitarian situation has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks as the U.S., which now controls Venezuela’s oil sales, is banning shipments to Cuba.
U.S. President Donald Trump in late January signed an Executive Order declaring a national emergency and establishing a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to Cuba. This is to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy from the Cuban regime’s malign actions and policies, according to the Executive Order.
The Executive Order “imposes a new tariff system that allows the United States to impose additional tariffs on imports from any country that directly or indirectly provides oil to Cuba.”
Russia is unfazed and doesn’t want to cut ties with Cuba, a friendly country according to Moscow’s classification. Venezuela was also among these, until U.S. forces captured Nicolas Maduro in early January and took control over the country’s oil sales.
“In the near future, it is planned to deliver oil and oil products to Cuba as humanitarian aid,” the Russian embassy in Cuba told Russia’s daily Izvestia.
At the same time, the Russian ministry of economic development has recommended that Russians refrain from traveling to Cuba amid the “fuel emergency” in the Caribbean country.
Earlier this week, Canadian airlines suspended flights to Cuba as the island nation faces depletion in jet fuel stocks amid the U.S. energy squeeze aimed at prompting regime change.
Cuba did not receive any oil imports from anywhere in January, Bloomberg has reported citing Kpler data. Cuba’s biggest oil suppliers have traditionally been Venezuela and Mexico, with Venezuela the biggest, but after the effective U.S. takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry those supplies dried up.
Now, after Trump put pressure on Mexico to stop shipping fuel to the heavily sanctioned island, Cuba has no immediate alternatives although Russia has signaled it planned to continue supplying fuel there.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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