Cuban FM to meet Putin Wednesday amid oil crisis: Kremlin

MOSCOW - Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, in a visit to the socialist island's traditional ally during a crippling US oil embargo.

Moscow has accused the United States of using "suffocating measures" against Havana and has said it was mulling sending aid to Cuba.

US President Donald Trump cut off key supplies of Venezuelan oil to Cuba after ousting Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. He has also threatened sanctions on countries that sell oil to Cuba.

The island has long grappled with a severe fuel shortage but the US embargo has deepened the crisis.

"Putin will receive Bruno Rodriguez in the Kremlin," the Russian leader's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters, including AFP.

"The Russian Federation has consistently opposed the blockade of Cuba," Peskov said, adding: "we provide assistance to our friends."

Cuba has been allied to Moscow since its 1960s socialist revolution, relying on the Soviet Union for economic and political support for decades.

The Kremlin maintained close ties to the Caribbean island after the USSR collapsed.
Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier said Rodriguez was leading a Cuban delegation that is "currently in Moscow."

Rodriguez will also hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Zakharova said.

Putin, an ex-KGB spy, visited Cuba in 2014, meeting with the island's revolution leader Fidel Castro, who died two years later.