"It's a negotiation between Trump and Putin; the Cuban people won't receive anything," Zoé Valdés said about the Russian oil tanker to Cuba

The exiled Cuban writer Zoé Valdés Valdés interprets Donald Trump's authorization for the Russian tanker Anatoly Kolodkin to dock in Cuba not as a humanitarian gesture, but as part of the geopolitical negotiation between Washington and Moscow within the framework of peace talks regarding Ukraine.

The ship, belonging to the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot - sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom since 2024 - docked at the port of Matanzas with between 700,000 and 730,000 barrels of crude oil, marking the first oil shipment to arrive on the Island in over three months.

Trump stated that he had no objections if a country wants to send some oil to Cuba, a position that Valdés considers part of a logic of mutual concessions between the United States and Russia.

"I believe this has to do with the war in Ukraine, because Trump and Marco Rubio can’t get the war in Ukraine out of their heads (...) and they are still in negotiations with Putin," he pointed out, insisting that the permit for the oil tanker to dock should be seen as another piece on the board of peace negotiations among the great powers.

In this context, he emphasized that Putin is the instructor of Alejandro Castro Espín, reinforcing his thesis that Russian influence over Havana extends far beyond energy supply.

The writer recalled that initially Russia had sent two ships, and that Trump only allowed one to pass.

"This is not going to reach the Cuban people (...) and as always, they will do what they do, they will take the oil, they will keep the oil for themselves, they will give absolutely nothing to the Cuban people," he emphasized.

Valdés also pointed to the opacity of the negotiations between Washington and the Cuban regime as a factor that complicates understanding the true scope of these diplomatic moves.

"Marco Rubio has stated that it is not directly with Alejandro Castro Espín, nor is it known if it is with Cangrejo. There is no transparency in this. (...) It is also true that the strategies may not be transparent, because they weren't with Venezuela, and the tyrant is where he is," he emphasized.