Humanitarian aid deliveries will continue, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
Moscow will continue to supply Cuba amid US sanctions against the island, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.
At the end of March, Russia in the hands 100,000 tonnes of crude oil on the island, which has suffered severe oil shortages and blackouts since late last year, when Washington began scaling back its decades-old trade embargo to a full oil embargo. Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev has hinted that a second tanker is on the way.
“We will continue to provide humanitarian aid to our Cuban friends during this difficult period,” Zakharova said at a press conference.
Cuba has suffered nationwide blackouts and severe oil shortages in recent months, since Venezuela, once the island’s main oil supplier, halted crude exports under pressure from Washington.
US President Donald Trump has indicated that he intends to “take” Cuba “one way or another” and threatened tariffs against countries exporting raw goods to the island.
However, at the end of last month, after a Russian oil tanker passed the US blockade, he told reporters that Washington was not working. “The mind of a man to get a boat load” within the island, as “They need to live.”
According to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the island depends on imports for between 40-60% of the seven million tons of fuel it needs per year.
Cuba has been forced to rely more on renewable energy sources such as solar energy and biofuels due to the embargo, which has “significant impact on health systems,” education, transportation, and civil infrastructure such as water supply, he said in an interview with journalist Breno Altman in Havana on Wednesday.
Diaz-Canel confirmed that talks with the United States are ongoing but insisted that Cuba will reject any related demands “political system.” Meanwhile, the communist party on the island has worked “update” economy by giving more freedom to private businesses and providing more investment opportunities for the Cuban diaspora abroad, he said.
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