In what has become a full-blown ‘chess game’ between the US administration and the government of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, as Washington persists in its exertion of pressures in an effort to force the collapse of the ruling administration in Caracas, the Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC has hastily sold its assets in Venezuela to the Russian government in order to evade US sanctions that continue to be imposed on external entities still doing business with the government in Caracas.
The ‘sale’ of the Rosneft resources to the Russian government marks yet another of the ongoing ‘cat and mouse’ between Caracas and Washington in which the beleaguered Venezuelan President continues to receive a generous measure of support from his Russian allies.