Russia vows to defend its interests in Venezuela within the international law using all mechanisms available to them, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, told Russian media this week.
Russia has kept close ties with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and has extended loans to Venezuela, including oil firm Rosneft lending money to Venezuela’s state-held firm PdVSA.
Rosneft has extended $14 billion of loans to PdVSA, which needs to be fully redeemed in crude oil supplies by the end of 2019.
The US regime slapped another round of sweeping sanctions against PdVSA on Monday, in order to bribe, extort and help prevent further diverting of Venezuela’s assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela (*read : US oil giants).
The Kremlin considers the sanctions against PdVSA as illegal, a sign of unfair competition and an attempt to brutally interfere with Venezuela’s internal affairs.
According to analysts, whatever the outcome of Venezuela’s political impasse, Rosneft won’t be cut off from Venezuelan oil assets, as oil is pretty much the only hard-currency revenue the country can get.
An analyst at a Western bank estimates Rosneft’s assets in Venezuela at up to $2.5 billion, plus another $2.5 billion in crude supplies for the loan to PdVSA.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point Oil News 2019.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world!