Cubans study oil tanker diplomacy for signs of progress in secret talks with US

<p>Despite hostile rhetoric Trump let a Russian ship break his blockade – could it herald a Venezuela-style outcome?</p><p>When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/29/us-russian-oil-tanker-cuba-blockade">docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude</a>, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.</p><p>In January, the US president had proclaimed on social media: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” yet last week he told reporters, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it” – and waved the Russian ship through.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/04/cuba-oil-tankers-trump-talks">Continue reading...</a>