Venezuela skirts U.S. sanctions by funneling oil sales via Russia

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Nicolas Maduro is funneling cashflow from Venezuelan oil sales through Russian state energy giant Rosneft as he seeks to evade U.S. sanctions designed to oust him from power, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters.

The sales are the latest sign of the growing dependence of Venezuela's cash-strapped government on Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Maduro, who it describes as a dictator.

With its economy reeling from years of recession and a sharp decline in oil production, Venezuela was already struggling to finance imports and government spending before Washington imposed tough restrictions on state oil company PDVSA in January.

Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lion's share of government revenues. Maduro has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of waging economic war against Venezuela.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/exclusive-venezuela-skirts-us-sanctions-by-funneling-oil-sales-via-russia/ar-BBW53YO?li=BBnb7Kz

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Better speak to your bro Putin Trumpy.

[oldsoftie]

1. Russia gets the oil, Cuba is getting the gold. And the people are getting the shaft

[atreides1]

6. Let's see

Replace Russia and Cuba with the USA, and the people will still get shafted!!!

[oldsoftie]

8. How bout you ask the people what THEY think?

[SharonAnn]

11. OIL LAUNDERING!

[sarabelle]

2. So what is Trump going to do about it? nt

[aggiesal]

4. See my #3 entry n/t

[aggiesal]

3. If you don't think IQ45 is tied to Rosneft, think again ...

IQ45 & Rosneft Story.

In the intelligence report dated 18 October, 2016, Steele observes that Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian oil company Rosneft, “was so keen to lift personal and corporate western sanctions imposed on the company, that he offered Carter Page, TRUMP’s associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatized) stake in Rosneft in return.

...

Complicating matters, too many commentators have circulated the falsehood that Trump was offered the full 19% of Rosneft. That’s crazy talk. Mike Flynn took pennies on the dollar, Paul Manafort took a few million, and it follows that Trump’s price is presumably much lower than a full fifth of Russia’s premier oil company. Moreover, this is not what Steele reports: “he offered PAGE/TRUMP’s associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatized) stake in Rosneft….” The brokerage on a sale is not the thing being sold.

To me, the most interesting (potential) clue is this little discrepancy: Steele reported that the stake would be 19 percent; the actual amount sold was 19.5 percent. Assuming Steele is correct, wherefore this extra half a percent?

Let’s crunch some numbers:

The deal for 19.5 percent of Rosneft was priced at 10.2 billion euros — again, way more than would be required to buy off Trump. This means that the company was valued at something like 52.3 billion euros. A one percent stake was 523 million euros; half of that was 261 million euros, or about 277 million USD — a quarter of a billion dollars, give or take.

...

We need to start looking for reasons why Trump would have been tempted by a one-time lump-sum payment of some $277 million in late 2016. Like, for example, the fact that he owed almost exactly that amount to his largest known creditor, Deutsche Bank.

[marble falls]

5. Was that an unintended consequence or the plan all along?

[Blue_Tires]

7. The punchline is all the oil monies

are going straight into the offshore bank accounts of Maduro and his cronies... Meanwhile Maduro pleads poverty to the media and they blindly lap it all up...

[oldsoftie]

9. Thank you. Your point will be immediately dismissed, because its correct.

[Farmer-Rick]

10. No, it seems the money is going to little man Putin and his greedy little puppet Trump

Trump played Venezuela like a fiddle. He pushed the country into the waiting arms of that short man Putin then draws a profit off the Russian oil corporation. Then sends a kick back to Guaido.

I'm sure all off Trump's shell companies are filling up with stolen loot.

[NYMinute]

12. That is the way the world oil markets work.

There is really no way to tell where a given lot of oil came from and so oil sanctions don't work. Iran is doing the same thing.

Saddam had created ordinary trucks with tankers underneath and he was selling oil via Turkey as the trucks went back and forth right under the nose of satellites. From air surveillance, they looked like trucks carrying food or goods.