Russian Oil Shipment Puts Focus on Kremlin Spy Outpost in Cuba

Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Russian Oil Shipment Puts Focus on Kremlin Spy Outpost in Cuba Moscow may be challenging President Trump’s effort to choke Cuba’s economy. China also has suspected listening posts on the island. Listen · 8:02 min Share full article By Michael Crowley Reporting from Washington March 24, 2026, 12:43 p.m. ET A Russian oil tanker possibly bound for Cuba is highlighting a key U.S. security concern: the communist island’s ties to foreign adversaries who use Cuba to spy on the United States. In an executive order in January, President Trump declared a national emergency listing several reasons he was acting to choke off Cuba’s oil imports . Near the top was his complaint that the country “blatantly” allows Russia and China to “base sophisticated military and intelligence capabilities” there that threaten U.S. national security. Specifically, the order noted, Cuba “hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which tries to steal sensitive national security information of the United States.” That is a reference to a Russian facility near Havana, established during the Cold War, that surveilled the United States for decades until it closed almost 25 years ago at a relatively warm moment in U.S.-Russian relations. But as tensions between Washington and Moscow froze over again, in 2014 Russia reopened the site , known as Lourdes. Former U.S. officials and experts say the base, which bristles with antennae and other eavesdropping equipment, is less sophisticated than China’s installations in Cuba. But it still puts Russian ears roughly 200 miles from the coast of Florida, which is home to several key U.S. military facilities, including Central Command, which oversees the Middle East; the satellite launchpads of Cape Canaveral; and Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and residence at Palm Beach. “What an unbelievably rich location,” said Glenn S. Gerstell, a former general counsel for the U.S. National Se...