Cuba’s worst energy crisis in decades may have a turning point in the form of a Russian fuel tanker now headed straight into the US military blockade.
Moscow arranged a vessel-to-vessel cargo transfer off Cyprus, loading the Sea Horse with what Kpler Ltd. estimates as nearly 200,000 barrels of gasoil — enough to offer temporary relief to an island that went the entirety of January without receiving a single oil shipment, an unprecedented stretch in over a decade.
Satellite readings place Cuba’s nighttime illumination at roughly half its normal level, a stark measure of how thoroughly the fuel drought has darkened daily life.
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On February 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla at the Kremlin and made Moscow’s position explicit. “This is a special period, with new sanctions. You know how we feel about this. We do not accept anything like this,” Putin said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
The Trump administration has backed its blockade with sustained naval force — at least nine shadow-fleet vessels have been boarded and seized in Caribbean waters since January, and others, including the Ocean Mariner carrying 30,000 barrels of diesel, reversed course rather than face interception.
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