The Russian tanker with 100,000 tons of crude oil arrives in Cuba, according to Russian authorities

Moscow.- The oil tanker 'Anatoli Kolodkin' with 100,000 tons of crude oil (more than 700,000 barrels) arrived in Cuba this Monday, according to the Russian Ministry of Transport, in what represents the first shipment of oil to reach the island in the last three months.

"At the moment the ship is awaiting unloading in the port of Matanzas", about 100 kilometers from Havana, the statement reproduced by the Interfax agency indicates, after the US President, Donald Trump, gave the green light to the arrival of the supply of Russian oil. The 'Anatoli Kolodkin', belonging to the Sovkomflot corporation - sanctioned by the U.S. since 2024 - departed from the Russian port of Primorsk on March 9th. According to press estimates, this shipment should be enough to meet the needs of the Caribbean island for several weeks, which is in a serious energy crisis due to the blockade imposed by Washington since January. Although the US authorities have lifted for a month the sanctions against oil in transit that had departed from its port before March 12, Washington prohibited said supply in the case of Cuba, Iran and North Korea.

However, Trump assured on Sunday that he has "no problem" with Cuba receiving Russian crude oil, since -he argued-: "They have to survive!".

"It doesn't bother me (...) they have a bad regime, they have bad and corrupt leadership, and whether or not an oil tanker arrives, that doesn't matter," the president indicated.

You may be interested in: Trump says he doesn't care if Cuba receives Russian oil: «They have to survive»

The president's statements come shortly after it was revealed, through a leak to The New York Times, that the U.S. will allow the entry of the Russian tanker to Cuba. The Financial Times newspaper reported in mid-March that Moscow had sent a second oil tanker, 'Sea Horse', carrying about 27,000 tons of fuel, to the Caribbean island. Russia, several of whose ships belonging to the so-called 'ghost fleet' have been seized at sea by Western coast guards, last sent oil to the island in February 2025, when it supplied the Castro regime with 100,000 tons of crude oil. Trump signed an executive order on January 29th that threatened tariffs on anyone who supplied oil to Cuba, to which the Kremlin promised humanitarian aid to overcome the crisis. The inability of the Cuban authorities to meet the energy demand has resulted in prolonged daily blackouts and the almost total paralysis of the economy.