The Embassy of Russia in Cuba published a video on X this Wednesday, showcasing nighttime aerial views of Havana —including the Malecón— fully illuminated, accompanied by the message: "This is how Havana looked on the night of April 19: for the first time in a long time, completely lit up after the refining of Russian crude that arrived in the Greater Antilles on the tanker 'Anatoly Kolodkin'."
The publication is a diplomatic propaganda operation that credits Moscow with alleviating the Cuban energy crisis but omits fundamental data that contradicts that narrative.
The tanker Anatoly Kolodkin, belonging to the Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot — sanctioned since 2024 by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom — transported approximately 730,000 barrels of Urals crude oil from the port of Primorsk, Russia.
The vessel arrived at the port of Matanzas on March 31 and completed its unloading on April 4, making it the first large supply of fuel to Cuba in almost three months, since the last delivery from Pemex on January 9.
However, the expert Jorge Piñón from the University of Texas estimated that this shipment would only cover seven to ten days of energy supply for Cuba, a country that needs between 90,000 and 110,000 barrels daily and internally produces only about 40,000.
The video from the Russian embassy shows a capital lit up as if the crisis had been resolved, but it ignores the fact that the rest of the country continued to suffer from prolonged blackouts even on that same date.
The Cuban energy crisis is structural and dramatically worsened in 2025 and 2026. In April of last year, the electrical deficit exceeded 1,440 MW during peak hours, with more than half of the country experiencing simultaneous outages.
In December 2025, that deficit surpassed 2,100 MW, affecting up to 61% of the national territory simultaneously. The Cuban Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, described 2025 as a "very difficult and tense" year, with disruptions expected for 2026.
The situation became even more complicated at the beginning of 2026: Venezuelan supplies were interrupted following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, and Mexican shipments from Pemex were suspended at the end of that same month due to an executive order from President Donald Trump.
This left Cuba without its main source of imported oil for nearly three months, until the arrival of the Anatoly Kolodkin.
Russia has exploited this vulnerability to project geopolitical influence, framing its shipments as "humanitarian aid" and openly challenging Western sanctions.
The Russian minister Serguéi Tsiviliov announced on April 2 a second shipment of oil to Cuba aboard the vessel Universal.
The case of Anatoly Kolodkin also created tension with Washington: the Department of the Treasury issued a license on March 12 excluding Cuba from Russian oil, and the Coast Guard deployed two cutters in the region.
The video from the Russian embassy, which celebrates a brightly lit Havana for just one night, contrasts sharply with the reality of millions of Cubans who continue to face power outages of up to 20 hours a day across the rest of the island.
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