this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/26166

Washington has cut off oil and fuel ships to Cuba, claiming the small Caribbean nation poses a 'national security threat' to the US

The US is “strangling” Cuba, Russia warned on 9 February, stressing that the Kremlin is looking for ways to assist the island nation to withstand Washington's intensified blockade.

“The situation in Cuba is indeed critical ... We are aware of this, and we maintain close contact with our Cuban friends through diplomatic and other channels,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

He added that “the stranglehold imposed by the United States is already causing a lot of difficulties for Cuba,” noting that Moscow and Havana are discussing “possible ways to resolve these problems or at least provide all possible assistance.”

After abducting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and taking control of that country's oil production, US President Donald Trump and his advisors have turned to fomenting regime change in Cuba.

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump wrote on his social media platform on 11 January, adding, “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

On 30 January, the US imposed sanctions and potential tariffs on countries providing fuel to Cuba, labeling the island a “national security threat” to the US.


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[–] UmbraVivi@hexbear.net 45 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Gonna tell libs that Russia is the lesser evil and to not let perfect be the enemy of good

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago

Russia is the only one that can stop Trump this election season and if you don't support them uncritically you support Trump.

[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

Tbh I’ve been saying this since they intervened in the civil war in Ukraine

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 72 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Give them nukes for real this time.

[–] ComradeRat@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

I have thought at least once every day this year how much i hate khrushchev for taking away the nukes

[–] CommunistBear@hexbear.net 72 points 2 days ago

If Russia fully supports Cuba in this I will become a straight up Z poster

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 53 points 2 days ago (2 children)

pretty sure every real country on the planet has indicated many times that what the US has done and continues to do to Cuba is an indefensible crime against humanity.

if i were a near-peer geopolitical rival, it would be a no-brainer to escort in humanitarian aid and bait the US into doing something extremely shitty to increase tensions among the fraying atlanticist coalition.

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It is not so inevitable that the Atlanticist coalition would be weakened by an international incident around Cuba. This is the same coalition that gleefully supported the US in its invasion of Iraq and many other deeply immoral excursions. Furthermore a UN vote in support of Cuba is easy, even free PR because they know the US will veto. I wouldn’t take it as a clear indicator of material support in a crisis scenario. It is possible that such a situation would galvanize support around the “besieged” United States.

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

its not that an inciting incident would weaken the resolve of the Atlanticist coalition of leaders. they will go to their graves or gallows defending capital.

rather it would expose more of their sniveling, unpopular cruelty to the working class they pretend to represent in their little "democracies".

true power is always resting with the working class of each nation, but it is corralled and harnessed as it sleeps. each inciting incident threatens to disturb the slumber.

[–] cornishon@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Gaza already exposed it, anyone who could've been convinced already has been convinced.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The US would love the chance to show off their naval power in their own back yard though

[–] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

its a paper tiger. it has not faced a peer in a generation and frequently loses its own war games against regional powers.

it is a bully that sinks or steals commercial craft and operates entirely on the assumptions that no one will ever call any bluff, every other party will always back down from provocation, and none of its victims will ever organize any retaliation.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just because the yanks are less and less able to project power abroad, doesn't mean China can start waving their dicks 90 miles off the US coast

[–] Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah China is pretty well defended in its own area, but it does not have the power projection that would be necessary to win a naval battle in Latin America. In attempting to do so, they’d also be severely weakening that defensive capacity back home, too. China is pragmatic, to a fault, you could say, but they do not want to engage in open warfare with anyone really, much less the US in its own hemisphere.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

And the thing with the geography of the Florida straights is that they can't even do a humanitarian escort without threatening US territory in the process

[–] ajab@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Cuba needs petroleum, gas, but it also needs solar panels and the mass electrification of its infrastructure. unreliable as it is now, with a robust electrical infrastructure, electricity becomes the physical manifestation of juche, sovereigntymaxxing without limits.

Yet who besides the yankee imperialists are capable of providing both the technical expertise and resources to build that?

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

China is already financing 55 solar parks across the country which started work in 2025, there are another 37 planned by 2028. That covers two thirds of Cuba's energy demands.

All they have to do is survive the current storm and things will get permanently better soon.

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Oh that's interesting — do you have a link? Maybe the impending threat of energy independence is part of what is motivating the US here...

Edit- someone shared this https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202504/24/WS6809974da3104d9fd382139b.html

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 22 points 2 days ago

Maybe the impending threat of energy independence is part of what is motivating the US here...

Mmmm I thought that. The US may be in a "now or never" mentality.

[–] Ladislawgrowlo@lemy.lol 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Seems like they are half a decade late to save whats left of Cuba.

[–] cornishon@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 days ago

Or the reason the oil siege happened now "all of a sudden" is that in a couple years Cuba will be energy independent, so now is the empire's last chance. In other words, if they started laying those solar panels four years earlier, Biden would have been the one to impose the blockade.

[–] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 20 points 2 days ago
[–] ClimateStalin@hexbear.net 46 points 2 days ago

That better include ships full of oil guarded by the Russian Navy fully prepared to shoot Americans if necessary

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 38 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I know it's complicated but the fact it's not china stepping up in these situations is incredibly disappointing to me. That, and their tolerance of billionaires, is really fucked up.

[–] CliffordBigRedDog@hexbear.net 24 points 2 days ago

In all Fairness, China has already pledged to build several Solar Farms and modernise the Cuban Grid

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202504/24/WS6809974da3104d9fd382139b.html

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

They havent been internationalists since the 70s

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

When they supported pol pot lol

[–] BeanisBrain@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

"He did what?! Never again."

[–] Blakey@hexbear.net 14 points 2 days ago

Yes, and it's completely fucked.

[–] Богданова@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

China wants you to join the Socialist revolution and build up your productive forces, to better assist other projects internally and externally, around the globe.

Chairman Mao once said:

The reason they still do not understand it is because they have been poisoned by the deceitful corrupting words off metaphysicisis like Dong Zhongshu, “Conform to the required meets and do not seek gain, be concerned with the way and do not plan for merit,” and have not yet cast them fully aside. It is also because they consider politics, Party and army affairs come first and are most important, while economic work, although also important, is not important to the same degree. They feel that they themselves do not have to divide their attention or to give much attention by being concerned.

He pointed out that in the two tasks of rectification and production,

Education (or study) cannot be carried out alone. We are not in a time when “official rank lies in study.” We cannot go and “conform to the requirements and illuminate the way” with hungry stomachs. We must get food to eat. We must pay attention to economic work. Talking of education or study separately from economic work is merely using superfluous and empty words. Talking of “revolution” separately from economic work is like making revolution against the Finance Department and against yourselves. The enemy will not be in the least hurt by you.

How wonderful are these words of Chairman Mao! How accurate, vivid, and lively they are! Shouldn’t our comrades who have been neglecting production follow Chairman Mao’s directives and seriously examine their own words and actions? If they are still unmoved after hearing these words, doesn’t it prove that they are poisoned by the “idealist, deceptive, and decadent words” of Confucius and Mencius? Shouldn’t we then thoroughly cleanse out this poison?

From A Poisonous Weed

Now doesn't this perfectly describe the state of Western Marxism? Strong theory and principles, yet no material base. With exception of some, mostly Anarchist, organization that do de-centralized Praxis through mutual-aid and such. In large part because nobody else seems to give a damn.

I'm still seeing comrades who will immediately throw an emotional temper tantrum and organize a protest for the sake of "Human Rights" in nations abroad that WE sanction. And then we have the audacity to tell them how shit of a job they have at running the country. Honestly unbelievable, the lack of self-awareness.

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

It really does seem like way too many western leftists have a "China is evil because they refuse to save us from capitalism without us needing to put in any effort." It is a step up from the slightly more common "China is evil because the CIA said so" but it still feels like a lot of liberal brainworms of expecting someone else to come in and fix things.

I don't want to die in a revolution, but neither did any successful revolutionaries, and they risked their lives anyway, none of them were special or exceptional, they were just regular people who decided to be brave instead of just keeping their heads down and hoping someone else would come and save them.

[–] cornishon@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it's very convenient to criticize China for being "insufficiently internationalist" when not a single socialist organization in the West even has any physical ability to do anything for Cuba, since they have no economic base, no production to speak of, only parties, forums and book clubs.

In fact, I would argue the current siege on Cuba is happening now precisely BECAUSE China started massively increasing its commitment to Cuba with the supplying of solar panels for Cuba to build sovereign and independent energy grid. In a couple years Cuba would be energy self-sufficient enough that a blockade like that would no longer work.

[–] cornishon@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 days ago

China has been in the process of supplying Cuba with enough solar panels to cover 2/3 of their energy demand for year or two now. If anything, it's China's help in getting Cuba to energy independence that's driving the current mad dash to crush Cuba before it's too late.

[–] Coolkidbozzy@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago

HYDROGEN BOMB

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

My bribers are butthurt therefore you're a "National Security Threat".

If Dems were smart they would be shouting from the rooftops the abuse of this ability to slander anything as a "national security threat" and campaign on putting a leash on it. But they enjoy it and enable it and want that option for their own bribers to throw a tantrum and call "National Security Threat".

[–] Ladislawgrowlo@lemy.lol 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I do not see Russia having a massive logistics capability to keep Cuba alive.