NEW YORK, March 31. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will soon decide what measures Washington will take against Moscow in connection with its support for Caracas, Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
Abrams’ administration is part of the Us Department of State.
"I would say that Russians have demonstrated their loyalty to the regime," he said.
"We have a big options list, that is being reviewed by Secretary Pompeo, of ways of which we should respond directly to Russia for their continuous support and now a little bit of military support for the regime. And he (Pompeo - TASS) will make this decision soon," Abrams said.
"We have drawn up the options, State Secretary will review them and Russian will pay the price for this," he added.
According to Abrams, "what the Russians are doing first of all will its own impact on Russia in separating them and other supporters of Maduro from Latin America."
On Friday, at a briefing for journalists at the State Department, Abrams said Washington demanded that foreign governments and companies stop oil trading with Venezuela. According to Abrams, as a result of this pressure, foreign companies began to reduce oil purchases.
On January 28, the US administration imposed sanctions against the Venezuelan state oil-producing company PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela). However, the US authorities have not yet introduced the so-called secondary sanctions against companies that buy oil from Venezuela.
Crisis in Venezuela
On January 23, Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas
Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him. Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US. On February 4, most of the European Union member states recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro, while China called for resolving all differences peacefully and warned against foreign interference. The United Nations secretary general, in turn, called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.