Maduro asks Putin for $1 billion to mine gold and diamonds
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who arrived in Moscow on his fourth official visit in two years, said that he sees opportunities to increase Russian investment in the Venezuelan economy by another $1 billion.
This amount, according to TASS, appears in the supporting materials for Maduro's talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which are taking place in the Kremlin.
According to the documents, additional Russian investments can be directed to the development of the mining industry in Venezuela - in particular, the mining of gold and diamonds.
The memorandum of cooperation, which opens up opportunities for Russian companies to invest in Venezuela's mineral development, was signed following Maduro's previous visit to Moscow last December.
At the time, Venezuela's president said he had agreed to raise $6 billion in Russian investment, "to maintain and repair" weapons systems, and supply 600,000 tons of grain from Russia.
Maduro didn’t bring any good news to the new round of talks with Putin. Oil production, which remains the only source of hard currency for Caracas, continues to fall and barely exceeds 700,000 barrels per day, although three years ago it reached almost 2.1 million.
There is also no one who wants to buy Venezuelan oil because of sanctions imposed by the administration of Donald Trump.
The last major buyer, China National Petroleum Corp, which accounted for about half of Venezuelan oil exports, broke the contract in August. According to Bloomberg, CNPC canceled plans to buy 5 million barrels.
Another possible source of foreign currency for Venezuela, the gold exports, is also coming to an end. In the summer, Venezuela failed to meet the terms of a "swap" deal with Deutsche Bank, in which it borrowed $750 million in 2016 using gold from its central bank's reserves as collateral.
As a result, 20 tons of precious metal, or 13% of Venezuela's gold reserves, were transferred to Deutsche Bank.