Cuba’s Castro allegedly asks Putin for oil in light of Venezuelan crisis

Cuba’s Raul Castro has allegedly penned a letter to Vladimir Putin with a request that Russia provide the island country with stable deliveries of oil and other petrol-based products to compensate for issues in supplies from Venezuela, reported Interfax on Monday, citing an unidentified source.

In his letter, Castro allegedly also said that Cuba was beginning to reduce its consumption of energy.

Venezuela continues to be in the midst of a large-scale economic crisis. The country does not have enough food to feed its people and lacks medicine and other essential commodities.

Venezuela has reduced its oil production in light of falling global prices for the natural resources. In May 2016, its oil production dropped to 2003 levels, when the country’s raw materials industry employees went on strike.

On two occasions in July 2016, Venezuela opened its border with neighboring Colombia to allow people to buy food and medicine abroad over a period of 24 hours.