As US starves Cuba of fuel and world plays mute, Cuban foreign minister heads to Russia

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez arrived in Russia on Wednesday for high-level talks, including a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin , as the island nation faces a deepening fuel crisis triggered by tightening U.S. sanctions and a near-total lack of international response.

Rodríguez met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , with both sides sharply criticising what they described as a deliberate U.S. energy squeeze that has left Cuba struggling to power electricity grids, refineries and essential services. Lavrov urged Washington to abandon what he called plans amounting to a de facto blockade and said Moscow would continue supporting Cuba, including through humanitarian assistance.

Cuba’s oil imports have collapsed since January after the United States cut off Venezuelan crude supplies and warned that any country selling fuel to Havana could face punitive tariffs. The measures, driven by President Donald Trump , have plunged large parts of the island into prolonged blackouts, with power cuts affecting nearly two-thirds of the country.

The fuel shortage has also crippled tourism, a key source of foreign exchange. Airlines from Canada and Europe have cancelled flights, while Russian tour operators have suspended package sales after the Cuban government said it cannot guarantee fuel for arriving aircraft. Tourism typically accounts for a significant share of Cuba’s GDP and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Despite the scale of the crisis, there has been near-total silence from major international groupings. Neither BRICS nor the United Nations has issued a strong collective response, while European governments have largely refrained from public criticism. Cuban officials and diplomats say the lack of reaction has effectively allowed one country to be “bullied” through economic pressure without consequence.

Cuba has indicated that it has opened preliminary communications with the U.S. government to explore humanitarian exemptions and limited relief, though no formal negotiations have begun. Trump has publicly urged Havana to “make a deal before it is too late,” a reference to U.S. demands that Cuba scale back ties with allies such as Russia, Venezuela and China.

The confrontation revives decades-old tensions between Washington and Havana, dating back to the communist revolution led by Fidel Castro and the Cuban Missile Crisis , when the world came close to nuclear war.

Today, Cuba remains a one-party communist state under President Miguel Díaz-Canel. As Rodríguez continues talks in Moscow, Havana is seeking urgent international support to avert a prolonged humanitarian and economic emergency - amid a global quiet that many in Cuba say speaks louder than words.