Russian Oil Tanker May Test US Cuba Blockade

A Russian oil tanker is quietly cutting through the Atlantic, and its next move could trigger a fresh US–Russia clash over Cuba. The Anatoly Kolodkin, a Russian state-owned vessel under US sanctions and carrying roughly 730,000 barrels of crude, left Primorsk on March 9 and exited the English Channel this week with a brief Russian naval escort, the New York Times reports. Officially, its destination is listed as "Atlantis, USA." The only Atlantis in the US, however, is a small city in Florida better known for golf clubs than oil terminals. Shipping data firm Kpler says its real destination is Matanzas, a port on Cuba's north coast where it is expected to arrive on Monday, reports the Guardian.

If it docks there, the shipment could give the island about a month's worth of badly needed fuel after a de facto US oil blockade dried up major deliveries in early January. Washington has been pressuring countries not to supply Havana, and that pressure has been working: a Chinese-owned tanker, the Sea Horse, abandoned a Cuba-bound run of Russian fuel last month and spent weeks drifting before seeking a new buyer, sources tell the Times.

• Jorge Pinonn, an energy expert at the University of Texas at Austin, tells the Miami Herald that two US Coast Guard cutters are positioned to intercept ships off Cuba's northeast coast if ordered to do so. "The United States has issued a directive to prevent oil from entering Cuba," Pinon says. "And those assets are there in case they need to act."

Cuba, which relied on Venezuelan oil before the US deposed Nicolas Maduro and took control of exports in January, hasn't received a major oil delivery in more than two months. As Cubans endure daily blackouts and soaring prices, President Trump has escalated his rhetoric about "taking" Cuba. "I think I could do anything I want with it," he said Monday. "They're a very weakened nation right now." The next day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was "ready to provide all possible assistance" with the island's energy crisis. "Cuba is an independent sovereign state that faces major economic difficulties due to the suffocating embargo imposed on the country," Peskov said.