Russia says threats to Rosneft over Venezuela senseless

MOSCOW, Mar 13 (PRIME) – The U.S. government threats against Russian oil major Rosneft over its cooperation with Venezuela are senseless as the company has been operating under the U.S. sanctions since 2014 and is still successful, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The threats that the U.S. state secretary against Rosneft for cooperation with Venezuela are senseless,” the statement said.

“The company has been under the sanctions since 2014 even without the threats, but it continues successful operations. At the same time, the company’s previous U.S. partners suffered serious losses after Washington forced them to terminate the cooperation.”

On Tuesday, U.S. State Secretary Michael Pompeo accused Rosneft of buying crude from Venezuela in defiance of the U.S. sanctions, supporting the government of Nicolas Maduro. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Pompeo’s statement does not meet the norms of international law, while Rosneft said it would protect its rights if it bears losses due to the statement.

The ministry also said that by sanctioning the U.S. dollar operations of Evrofinance Mosnarbank, the U.S. government has dealt a new blow to its own currency, hurting international trust in the currency and its status of an instrument of all international settlements. “With its own actions, Washington is making the international community more and more sure that the U.S. dollar is unreliable, it makes them refrain from using it,” the statement read.

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