Russia: US sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company illegal
Moscow has said that the sanctions imposed by Washington on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, in an attempt to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s power, are illegal.
“The legitimate leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions as illegal. One can fully get behind this perspective,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The US Treasury Department said that the measures against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company were adopted in order to “change the behavior” of the government in power.
Peskov said that the sanctions constitute blatant interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs and a demonstration of “unscrupulous competitiveness”.
He added that Russia will endeavor to protect its own
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the new sanctions are in violation of “all conceivable rules of international law” and are evidence of Washington’s desire to change the government in Venezuela.
The Russian diplomat said that the US has “taken an open course towards overthrowing the legitimate government in this Latin American country”.
“We… will do all we can in order to support the legitimate government of President Maduro,” Lavrov said during a press conference on Tuesday.