The Trump administration announced new sanctions against Russia’s biggest oil producer and an executive at the company over its operations in Venezuela, an escalation of Trump’s promise in his State of the Union address to “smash” the rule of Nicolas Maduro.
The Russian energy giant Rosneft’s trading arm has handled over half the oil coming out of Venezuela and has actively helped the country evade sanctions through a variety of means, such as ship-to-ship transfers, which conceal the oil’s origin. Tuesday’s action is aimed at “putting everyone on notice that that kind of evasion will not be tolerated,” a senior administration said is a call Tuesday with reporters, citing the administration’s confidence that increased pressure will lead to continued movement toward a democratic transition.
The decision was cleared by President Trump and was discussed Saturday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Trump has spoken in the past with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the importance of a democratic transition in Venezuela and stressed the administration’s concerns about companies doing business with the Maduro government.
The administration has been mulling action against Russian-owned oil brokerage firm Rosneft Trading SA and chairman Didier Casimiro since at least early February as part of a maximum pressure campaign designed to hasten Maduro’s retreat from office. “We are at 50% or 60%,” the senior administration said about the efforts to pressure the Venezuela leader. The administration seeks the “first fully democratic Western Hemisphere,” this official said, as part of the Trump Doctrine foreign policy agenda.
The United States was one of more than 50 countries to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president after the country’s 2018 elections. In his State of the Union address, Trump addressed Guaido as the “true and legitimate president of Venezuela” and later met with him in the Oval Office in a session that the White House called a state visit.
