Peskov: US sanction against Venezuelan PDVSA illegal

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (PRIME) -- U.S. sanctions against Venezuela’s state-own oil company PDVSA are illegal and an attempt to meddle with the state’s internal affairs, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

“(Moscow) will defend (its interests) in line with the applicable international legislation using all available tools. Venezuela’s legitimate government has already characterized the sanctions as illegal. We may join the point of view entirely,” he said.

“We do not see (the sanctions) as correct. We believe they are largely an indication of unfair competition. This time the trend goes on, this is blatent interference in Venezuela’s domestic affairs.”

On Monday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on PDVSA and urged the country’s military to accept a peaceful transfer of power to opposition leader Juan Guaido who was recognized as interim president by the U.S. and more than 20 countries. The U.S. blocked all the company’s assets within its jurisdiction.

Peskov also said that Russia is presently evaluating risks from the sanctions against PDVSA.

“This is a commercial issue. Of course we are analyzing possible consequences of the restrictions for us,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. and its allies are trying to use the sanctions to confiscate Venezuela’s property.

“The U.S. has experience of such illegitimate actions against other people’s money. We saw such asset freezes in Iraq, Libya, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama. In the majority of cases the freezes in fact turned out to be confiscation of other government’s money,” he said.

“(The actions) grossly undermine the last vestiges of trust in the global financial system based on the U.S. dollar supremacy and deepen the crisis in the Venezuelan society.”

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