Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting with his Yemeni counterpart in Moscow on August 27, 2024. Photo source: Evgenia Novozhenina / AFP / Profimedia
Moscow said on Monday that economic and military “pressure” on its ally Cuba was “unacceptable”, comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov came after the Trump administration stepped up threats against the communist-led island nation, writes AFP.
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, which is facing its worst economic crisis in decades.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced the measure, calling it an attempt to “suffocate” his country's economy.
Lavrov reiterated on Monday that “economic and military pressure on Cuba is unacceptable, including cutting off the island's energy supply,” according to a statement issued after a telephone conversation with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez.
The head of Russian diplomacy also stated that the interruption of the island's energy supply “threatens to seriously aggravate the economic and humanitarian situation in the country” and reiterated “Moscow's firm commitment to continue providing Cuba with the necessary political and material support.”
AFP reporters saw Cubans standing in long lines at gas stations in Havana after the US announced tariffs.
Tensions between the United States and Cuba have risen following the Trump administration's shock capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose country was a crucial source of oil exports to Cuba.
Even before that, the Caribbean island faced repeated power outages amid its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
