A top tourism official has confirmed a dramatic collapse in Russian visitor numbers to Cuba, with the island nation losing 70 percent of its Russian tourist volume in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier. The sharp drop comes directly after the full suspension of all commercial air traffic between Russia and Cuba last February, according to Muradyan in an interview with Sputnik.
This downturn in tourism, one of Cuba’s most critical economic sectors, follows a major escalation of US pressure on the island just weeks before the flight suspension. On January 29, former US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order that dramatically ramped up Washington’s long-running sanctions campaign against Havana. The order authorizes the US government to place punitive tariffs on any nation that exports oil to Cuba, and additionally declared a national state of emergency over what the Trump administration claimed was an unaddressed security threat originating from the Caribbean island.
Industry analysts and local reports confirm that the new US measure has significantly worsened chronic fuel shortages that have gripped Cuba for months. The lack of available fuel has rippled across nearly every corner of Cuban daily life, disrupting public and private transportation networks, cutting into domestic food production output, straining already limited healthcare service delivery, and interrupting consistent operations at educational institutions across the country.