Cuba’s president meets Russia’s Rosneft CEO amid fuel shortage

Igor Sechin,CEO of Russian oil firm Rosneft, met with the Cuban president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, on Saturday after the fuel shortage, which caused hours-long gasoline queues and service stations to temporarily shutter.

Sechin told the Cuban president that when it comes to Cuba “Putin supervises them directly and personally” according to Diaz-Canel’s office statement via Twitter.

The Cuban presidency account has various tweets that emphasise the good relations between the two countries, however, none of the tweets specified the reason for the visit by the firm’s CEO.

Sechin is set to travel to Venezuela to attend the tenth death anniversary of the country’s former president Hugo Chavez, a close ally to both Cuba and Russia. The Cuban former leader Raul Castro also flew to Caracas to attend the occasion.

Communist Cuba is facing one of the worst economic crisis in decades due to the pandemic, U.S. sanctions and an inefficient economy that does not respond to the challenges.

Long queues for food, fuel, and medicine have filled the island and contributed to an exodus of a majority of Cubans to the U.S. in the past year.

Russia gave Cuba an emergency donation in February of 25,000 tons of wheat to help with the shortages in the island, which came as a sign of deep ties between the two countries, according to Reuters.

Russia is looking for allies to strengthen its situation politically and economically after the Western sanctions on the country.

Cuba has already been under an American economic embargo since 1962 after a communist revolution led by Fidel Castro, the former leader.