The Federal Customs Service of Russia (FCS) and the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) signed an agreement on November 11 to exchange information regarding cash and monetary instruments transported by travelers between both countries, according to an analysis by Diario las Américas.
The agreement does not prohibit remittances nor change the existing cash limits, but it creates a cross-monitoring mechanism that directly impacts the thousands of Cubans who bring dollars or euros from Russia to support their families on the island.
The document was signed by Tatyana Merkushova, deputy director of the FCS, and Fernando Luis Camejo de la Rosa, head of the General Directorate of Financial Research and Operations of the BCC.
According to the official Russian communiqué, the agreement "lays the groundwork for the transfer of information regarding money and monetary instruments that move between Russia and Cuba," including data about the origin of these sums, and "the parties intend to use the information exchange to identify suspicious transactions."
The full text of the agreement has not been published, so the specific thresholds, operational procedures, and implementation timeline are unknown.
What changes and what remains the same for the "mules" and Cuban residents
The official statement does not announce new restrictions on conventional bank transfers or changes in the amounts permitted for passengers. What does change is the traceability: from now on, cash declarations made by a Cuban to the Russian or Cuban customs can be cross-checked between both governments.
In Cuba, the already requires declaration to Customs of any amount exceeding $5,000 when entering or exiting the country. To withdraw more than this amount, authorization from the president of the BCC and documentation proving the legitimate acquisition of the funds is required. Russia, for its part, prohibits the export of cash foreign currency exceeding the equivalent of $10,000, a restriction extended until March 2027.
The agreement also states that, in the event of a false declaration or omission of information, "the competent authorities should be able to request data regarding the origin of the money and its intended use." This turns every border crossing with cash into a potentially shareable piece of information between Havana and Moscow.
The regime, in pursuit of informal currencies
The agreement fits into a strategy that the Cuban regime has been implementing for years: to capture the currency flowing through informal channels that currently evade its oversight.
The , approved in September, allowed private businesses to receive cash payments in dollars and euros, but stipulated that 20% of those earnings must be paid into the state's central fund.
In parallel, bilateral financial cooperation with Moscow has accelerated. In April 2025, Novikombank —a subsidiary of the state conglomerate Rostec— signed agreements with the BCC and two Cuban commercial banks to increase payments in rubles; the bank reported that payments through Cuban accounts had grown by 42% in the previous year.
In October 2026, Novikombank began to issue MIR cards for Russian pensioners residing in Cuba. Bilateral trade grew by 32% between January and August 2026, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Chernyshenko.
The argument of the FATF, a paradox
Both parties justify the agreement as part of their obligations under the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). However, both Cuba and Russia have had their membership in that organization suspended since February 24, 2023, which makes the argument somewhat contradictory, to say the least.
The political angle is hard to ignore: amid escalating pressure from Washington on Havana, the Cuban regime is providing Moscow with information about the financial movements of its own citizens, consolidating a bilateral financial architecture largely designed to operate outside the Western system.
The unanswered question is whether this mechanism of cross-monitoring will end up discouraging Cubans from carrying cash — the most direct way to support their families — or if it will simply add a new risk to a practice that, for now, remains legal.
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