The Russian-flagged oil tanker Anatoly Koludkin arrived in the Cuban port of Matanzas today carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil, breaking the three-month-long U.S. -imposed oil blockade that has asphyxiated the Cuban economy. The tanker’s arrival was confirmed by [Russia’s Transport Ministry, TASS reported.]( https://tass.com/politics/2108859 ) and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported that the issue “was raised in advance with our American counterparts.”
The blockade has taken a huge human toll, halting all public transportation, air travel, interrupting healthcare delivery, shutting down hospitals and endangering lives. There have been three island-wide power outages in March. Speaking from St. Petersburg where he was attending the 23rd Cuba-Russia Intergovernmental Council meeting, Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva reported that because of the oil blockade, 100,000 people, including 11,000 children are awaiting surgeries that had to be postponed due to the fuel shortage. Cancer drugs and other crucial medicines are also in short supply.
In remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One March 29, President Trump said he had no problem with Russia, or others, making periodic deliveries of crude oil to Cuba, CNN reported him saying.. After all, people have to survive. But he insisted that oil shipments really won’t have a big impact on the island, because “Cuba will be next” in terms of regime change, without mentioning specifics as to how that will occur. “It’s a mess,” he said. “it’s a failing country, it will fail in a very short period of time and we will be there to help it out, to help our great Cuban-American friends” whose families were expelled or left after the 1959 revolution. Cuba’s “finished,” Trump reiterated. “They have a bad regime with very bad and corrupt leadership.
