The Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin arrived in Cuban waters after a three-week journey, expected to dock soon despite US embargo pressures.
The Russian-flagged tanker Anatoly Kolodkin is on its way to Cuba despite US pressure.
The vessel, which spent three weeks in an Atlantic 'cat-and-mouse game,' reached Cuban territorial waters late Sunday. It is expected to dock at the port on Monday or Tuesday. According to a report by the New York Times, citing a senior US official, the Trump administration has decided to allow the ship's passage to Cuba.
Since January, Cuba has been facing a deepening energy crisis due to the political turmoil in Venezuela, which has disrupted its oil shipments. Russian officials have reiterated their support for the Cuban regime and its people for weeks, condemning US pressure policies in their statements.
Strategic Maneuvers and Technical Data
The ship, which departed from the port of Primorsk on March 8 with 730,000 barrels of crude oil, misleadingly set its AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal to 'Atlantis' for most of the journey. However, an update on Sunday clarified that the destination is Matanzas, Cuba, with an arrival date set for March 31.
Open-source analyses in the region indicate that US Coast Guard vessels USCG Tahoma and USCG Richard Etheridge, along with a patrol vessel and a warship, are patrolling the area. On the other hand, it is claimed that another tanker flagged from Hong Kong, which loaded diesel from Russia, may have secretly slipped into Cuba by turning off its signal in the middle of the Atlantic.
Source: SeaNews Türkiye
