Tim Pearce

The amount of relief that the extra fuel will bring will be gone in a matter of days.

Here's Acosta again.

So this tanker seems to be a very short-term reprieve, and the island will be right back to where it was in less than a couple of weeks.

So crisis certainly not averted at this point.

We've seen some reports that this Russian tanker could be more than just a humanitarian mission.

There could be political purposes here.

Can you break down that speculation for us?

Yeah, there are a lot of theories going around that this could be some sort of test or a move by Russia to maintain influence in Cuba.

Here's what Acosta made of it.

So with this in mind, that there is probably some sort of Russian interest here beyond helping a friend, what is Washington's view of this?

Why did President Trump make the decision to allow this tanker to go through?

Yeah, the president said over the weekend that one tanker of oil will not make much of a difference, and neither will it save the Cuban government from collapse.

That said, if countries want to send humanitarian aid to the island, he has no problem with that.

Acosta, however, has another take that this decision could serve Washington's interests as well.

So we'll just have to see where negotiations go from here.

For now, this Russian tanker appears to be more about politics than bringing any lasting relief to Cuba.

Lots of political calculations going into this on all sides, no doubt.

Tim, thanks so much for reporting.

Thanks for having me on.

This week, NASA will launch Artemis II, the first manned mission around the moon in over 50 years.