The United States allowed a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying approximately 730,000 barrels of crude, to reach Cuba's port of Matanzas on Monday, March 30, 2026. It was Cuba's first oil import in over three months, after a blockade that left the island’s energy system buckling under pressure from above. The US Coast Guard authorized the tanker's passage after President Trump said from Air Force One on Sunday, March 29, 2026, that he had "no problem" with the delivery. **The Blockade and Its Costs** This decision represents an abrupt reversal of the de facto oil blockade imposed by the Trump administration on Havana. Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed the country had gone three months without oil imports. The blockade began after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, which cut off Cuba's primary oil supplier. The Trump administration then blocked all remaining Venezuelan shipments and threatened punitive tariffs on any third country, including Mexico, that supplied oil to Cuba. The result was not some abstract policy success. The blockade led to multiple total grid collapses across the island of 9.6 million people, severe gasoline rationing, inoperable hospitals, and halted public transport. That is what sanctions and blockades look like when they land on ordinary people. **What Washington Permitted** The Anatoly Kolodkin had departed Russia's Primorsk port on March 8, 2026, and was escorted by a Russian navy vessel through the English Channel before crossing the Atlantic unimpeded. The tanker itself is sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom due to Russia's war in Ukraine. The US decision to allow the passage comes within a broader context of the Trump administration temporarily easing global sanctions on Russian oil to stabilize energy markets disrupted by the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Russia had previously announced weeks earlier its consideration of sending crude to Cuba on humanitarian grounds. Jorge Piñón of the University of Texas Energy Institute estimated that the 730,000 barrels could yield roughly 180,000 barrels of diesel, sufficient to cover about nine to ten days of Cuba's daily demand. He also estimated that the shipment would take 15 to 20 days to refine and another five to ten days to distribute. **Pressure Campaign Continues** A second vessel, the Hong Kong-flagged Sea Horse, carrying 200,000 barrels of Russian-origin diesel originally bound for Cuba, rerouted to Venezuela this week, suggesting potential limits to Washington's flexibility. Despite the delivery, President Trump, speaking from Miami last Friday, March 27, 2026, indicated that after the fall of Venezuela and the attack on Iran, "Cuba will be next," suggesting the broader pressure campaign remains in effect.
