Venezuela is handing over unprecedented control of its state-owned oil assets to longtime financial backer Russia in an effort to stave off insolvency and economic collapse.
Battered by civil unrest that threatens to become a total political meltdown, the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro has offered an ownership stake in up to nine of Venezuela’s most productive oil projects, Reuters reported Friday.
The deals give Russian President Vladimir Putin an even stronger foothold in the Western Hemisphere’s largest oil reserves and, potentially, a way to skirt U.S. economic sanctions imposed as punishment for Moscow’s election meddling and military intervention in Ukraine.
Since …read more
Source: The Daily Signal
