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Moscow warns US sanctions against Venezuela will inflict irreparable damage

According to the high-ranking diplomat, this package of measures will become a direct path to an environmental disaster
A demonstrator screams during a protest in Caracas AP Photo/Fernando Llano
A demonstrator screams during a protest in Caracas
© AP Photo/Fernando Llano

MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Moscow is calling on the world community to estimate the consequences of US oil sanctions against Venezuela, warning that they may cause irreparable damage for the entire region, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday.

According to the high-ranking diplomat, this package of measures will become a direct path to an environmental disaster, which may inflict "irreparable damage for other regional states’ development."

"We urge the world community, especially the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, in the most active way to analyze the possible aftermath of this step," the spokeswoman stressed.

In this regard, Zakharova wondered what will become of the oil that Washington has forbidden to buy from the legitimate Venezuelan government. "The produced oil, which Washington has forbidden to buy from the legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro, where will it go further? Will it be poured into the sea?" she noted.

"While fulfilling its opportunistic ambitions, unfortunately Washington does not even calculate simple consequences that any person with the knowledge on the process of oil production understands," she said.

"This looks like a real act of sabotage, a very large-scale one, not only causing geopolitical damage to international relations, but, in particular, having direct consequences for the entire region’s ecology," Zakharova stressed.

On January 28, Washington introduced sanctions against the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA. The US Treasury Department promised at the same time to issue temporary licensing authorizing "certain transactions" of the producer. Citgo Petroleum, the US subsidiary of PDVSA, can continue work, provided that funds earned by it will remain at accounts blocked in the US and will not be remitted to PDVSA. The Russian Ministry of Energy considers the sanctions imposed by the United States against Venezuela’s PDVSA as illegal, Minister Alexander Novak said.