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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana

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

a man with a bicycle with an oil tanker docked in the background
A man holds a bike as the Russian oil tanker Anatoly Kolodkin is seen at the oil terminal in the port of Matanzas, north-western Cuba, on 31 March. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.

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.

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