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Today Russian state media went into hyperdrive to express the Russian Federation’s concern that Moscow will not get back the billions it has loaned the Maduro regime in Caracas. The Trump administration has ratcheted up the pressure on Venezuela in sanctioning the state oil company – PDVSA. This will cut off the revenue to the Maduro government and therefore prevent Russia from recovering its loans.
The Kremlin was not pleased. There is a $100 million payment due at the end of March. Russian government officials said as much today, as well as pointing out Russia’s concern over American sanctions.
“Probably there will be problems [paying back the debt]. All depends on the army, the military, how dutiful they will be,” Deputy Minister Sergei Storchak said today.
“No changes in the agreement have been introduced and correspondingly Venezuela must fulfill the obligations it has taken upon itself to the creditor,” declared the Russian Finance Ministry, reported Reuters.
“The legal leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions [PDVSA] as illegal. We can fully join this point of view,” stated Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He recalled the “consistent attitude of Moscow to such restrictions, to which American colleagues are increasingly beginning to resort.””We do not consider this to be right; we consider it most often to be the manifestations of unfair competition. In this case, this is a continued line on undisguised interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela,” the Kremlin spokesperson said., reported Russian state news agency TASS.
“Regarding military intervention by third countries, we spoke about inevitable, extremely negative consequences of such ill-considered actions from the very start,” Peskov pointed out.
