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New Delhi: A Russian-flagged oil tanker reportedly reached Cuba on Monday after US President Donald Trump allowed it to break his administration’s fuel blockade of the island nation as its energy crisis deepens. The Russian transport ministry said the Anatoly Kolodkin, a tanker with nearly 730,000 barrels of oil onboard, had arrived at the Matanzas port in Cuba on Monday, according to Russian state-run news agencies.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin also said on Monday the ship had arrived in Cuba. Asked if the US agreed to let the tanker through, Peskov said: “As for the American side, I can only confirm that this issue was indeed raised in advance during contacts with our American counterparts.”

Past woes, now undone

As maritime analytics firm Kpler reported earlier this month, a sanctioned Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin was heading to Cuba, despite the country being under a US economic blockade. It came after US President Donald Trump’s recent aggressive rhetoric against Cuba when he said he would have the “honor” of “taking Cuba in some form” and that “I can do anything I want” with the neighboring country. 

The Russian tanker reportedly loaded 730,000 barrels of crude in the Russian port of Primorsk on March 8, and on March 11 at 1600 GMT was in the eastern Atlantic, bound for Cuba. Its data said that the Russian vessel was scheduled to unload at the Matanzas oil terminal on the north of the island around March 23.

The US has recently intensified pressure on Cuba, a country with which its relations have not been good for some time now. Under Trump this has only worsened and become more pronounced after the US seized Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January. 

Trump has since cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to impose tariffs on any country selling oil to the country, stating that Cuba would receive “no more oil or money” as a result of his actions. After US sanctions and pressure on Cuba, Russia has been one of the few countries to openly come out in support of Cuba. It is helping Cuba weather the impact of US sanctions primarily by stepping in as an alternative energy supplier.

As Washington tightened pressure on countries like Venezuela and Mexico to curb fuel exports to Cuba, the island has faced acute shortages, leading to blackouts and economic disruption. During such a time, Russia has begun sending shipments of crude oil and refined fuels directly to Cuba. These deliveries, though limited in scale compared to Cuba’s full needs, have been significant because they come at a moment when few other suppliers are willing to risk US retaliation.

The US seems to have finally relented. Speaking aboard Air Force One Sunday, Trump confirmed a tanker was heading towards the Caribbean country. “We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload, because they have to survive,” he told reporters, when being asked about the vessel. “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem. I 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,” the president added.