The U.S. Coast Guard will allow a Russian vessel to dock in Cuba with over 700,000 barrels of crude oil after months of a blockade imposed by Washington on the arrival of petroleum to the island, reported The New York Times on Sunday. The tanker is currently less than 24 kilometers from the island and is expected to enter Cuban waters on Sunday afternoon, docking on Tuesday, according to the newspaper. The ship, Anatoly Kolodkin, under the Russian flag, is a tanker sanctioned by both the United States and the European Union (EU). The arrival of this vessel will help alleviate the energy crisis Cuba is facing, worsened by the energy blockade imposed by Donald Trump on the island after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in January. Why did the U.S. allow a Russian vessel to enter Cuba? It is unclear why the White House decided to allow this vessel to pass or if it will allow other shipments of Russian oil to the island in the future, the newspaper noted. Russia had already stated a few weeks ago that it was studying sending crude to Cuba for humanitarian reasons, although that decision was a challenge to Washington. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on January 29 threatening tariffs on anyone supplying oil to Cuba. U.S. blocked the flow of crude to the island The U.S. has been pressuring Havana since January by cutting off its flow of imported oil with the aim of getting the Cuban government to the negotiating table and to undertake reforms, primarily economic ones, following in Venezuela's footsteps. Cuba needs about 100,000 barrels daily to meet its energy needs, of which about 40,000 come from its national production. The inability to cover the rest of the demand has resulted in prolonged daily blackouts and the near-total paralysis of the economy.
