While most Cubans flee their dictatorship via boat to the United States due to its proximity, somehow three Cubans ended up in Russia and then tried to flee that country and theirs on top of an air mattress via the River Narva in a roundabout attempt to get to Spain.
The Cubans were caught by Russian border guards on the River Narva trying to paddle into the European Union country of Estonia on air mattresses.
According to the BBC, the trio told the guards they were trying to get to Spain where one of them has a daughter.
While the news site didn’t say how the Cubans got to Russia, it noted, “Cubans only need their passports to visit Russia for tourism but cannot enter the EU legally without a visa.”
Information on the trio is scarce, it is only known they are Cuban citizens born in 1968, 1970 and 1992. They have been fined and are awaiting deportation.
Guards told the BBC the group had studied the local terrain before setting out and were caught with “bags containing personal belongings, toiletries and identity papers were found with them.”
The situation in Cuba has become intolerable over the last year, worsening in July when President Miguel Diaz-Canel responded to protests by ordering police to open fire on the demonstrations and start “disappearing” top dissidents.