It was Havana that dialed the number. This Friday, at the initiative of the Cuban side, Cuba's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gerardo Peñalver, spoke by phone with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Serguéi Riabkov, in a call that was confirmed by the agency Interfax and included in the official statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Moscow responded with words. Ryabkov expressed "firm solidarity and support for the leadership and the people of Cuba, our brother country, in such difficult times," and announced "readiness to continue providing Havana with the necessary political and material assistance," according to the statement released by the Russian Embassy in Cuba. No specific figures, oil shipments, or delivery dates were mentioned.
The Russian deputy minister also reiterated that Moscow considers economic and "forceful" pressure on Cuba to be "unacceptable," and demanded the immediate end of what the Kremlin refers to as a commercial, fuel, and financial "blockade" — a term that the Cuban regime has adopted for itself, although the correct designation is embargo.
The call comes at the worst electrical moment of the month for the island and amid an escalation in the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, who the day before stated that he would resolve the "Cuba" issue before the end of his term.
This Friday, the Electric Union anticipated a nighttime deficit of 1,900 MW and an impact of 1,930 MW, with only 32% of the demand being met. The Ernesto Guevara thermoelectric plant went offline that same day, further worsening the situation.
In this context, the record of Russian energy aid in 2026 is scant. The only oil shipment that arrived on the island throughout the year was from the vessel Anatoli Kolodkin —100,000 tons of Urals crude, equivalent to about 730,000 barrels— which docked in Matanzas on March 31. The Cuban ambassador in Moscow, Enrique Orta González, acknowledged in October that this was the only Russian vessel with crude that reached Cuba all year.
A second shipment announced in April by the Russian Energy Minister never materialized: the tanker Universal changed course towards the South Atlantic in May without reaching the island. Russia also sent 750 tons of vegetable oil through the World Food Program, but that doesn't power a turbine.
The call to Moscow is part of a diplomatic offensive that the Cuban regime has been conducting throughout this week. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez traveled to China as a special envoy, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised "firm" support for Cuba "regardless of how circumstances evolve," without announcing specific commitments regarding oil or debt renegotiation.
This Friday, Rodríguez arrived in Vietnam, where he was welcomed by President Tô Lâm. The pattern repeats: plenty of verbal support, little tangible assistance.
The catalyst for this tour was the escalation of pressure from the United States. On November 5, the State Department imposed new sanctions on networks supporting the military and oil sectors of the Cuban government, including Chinese companies. The following day, Trump declared that he would "definitely" consider a "brief military campaign" to address the Cuban issue before the end of his term.
While the dictatorship accumulates promises in Beijing, Hanoi, and Moscow, a parliamentary document from the Russian Duma acknowledged on November 6 that, following the tightening of U.S. restrictions in August, Cuba is "practically" without fuel imports. For now, solidarity does not fill the tanks.
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