Russia 'glad' oil shipment reached Cuba amid US blockade

MOSCOW: Russia is pleased that a shipment of its oil reached Cuba despite a de facto US blockade of the island, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Russia sent the Anatoly Kolodkin, a sanctioned oil tanker carrying 730,000 barrels of crude, to Cuba earlier this month as the Communist-run island grappled with fuel shortages.

Shipping data showed it sailing off Cuba’s northeast coast on Monday, but it was not immediately clear whether it had docked at a port.

Russia is a close ally of Havana and has criticised Washington for blocking fuel deliveries to the island.

“Russia considers it its duty to step up and provide necessary assistance to our Cuban friends,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We are pleased that this shipment of petroleum products will arrive on the island, or rather, it has already arrived,” he added.

The shipment of oil would be the first to Havana since January, when US forces abducted Venezuelan president and Cuban ally Nicolas Maduro in a raid.

Maduro’s removal deprived Cuba of its main oil supplier and triggered an energy crisis on the island, sending fuel prices soaring and triggering daily blackouts.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had “no problem” with Russia sending oil to the island.

“Cuba’s finished. They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership and whether or not they get a boat of oil it’s not going to matter,” he said.