US choking Cuba’s economy – Moscow

Russia opposes unilateral sanctions, including Washington’s “maximum pressure” strategy, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said

Russia condemns the renewed US attempts to economically strangle Cuba, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. Her comments come after US President Donald Trump moved to ramp up pressure on the island’s fuel lifeline.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order invoking a national emergency to lay the groundwork for tariffs on goods from countries that sell oil to Cuba. The move is meant to strengthen an embargo against Havana, which dates back to the 1960s. It also comes after Washington kidnapped in Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, which served as Cuba’s primary source of oil.

In a statement on Saturday, Zakharova said that the crackdown amounts to illegitimate coercion of a sovereign state outside the UN framework. “What we see is yet another radical recurrence of Washington’s strategy of maximum pressure on the Island of Freedom, aimed at its economic suffocation,” Zakharova said.

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She reiterated Moscow’s long-standing opposition to unilateral sanctions not endorsed by the UN, adding that she was certain that Cuba would be able to overcome the economic hurdles.

In response to Trump, Havana declared an “international emergency.” It said that Trump’s pressure campaign was an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” adding that it has its origins in “the US anti-Cuban neo-fascist right wing.”

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that US tariffs on countries exporting oil to Cuba could trigger a humanitarian crisis, adding that the country “will always look for diplomatic channels to seek solidarity” with the island.

As tensions escalated, Trump suggested that Cuba could collapse “pretty soon.” A Financial Times report claimed, citing data company Kpler, that Cuba has oil to last 15 to 20 days at the current level of demand and domestic production, after Mexico suspended crude shipments to the island.