MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax) - The United States is trying to ruin Venezuela's economy, according to Russia's military intelligence chief Vice Admiral Igor Kostyukov.
"The Venezuelan economy is being suffocated. As a result of Washington's new sectoral sanctions, the export of oil - the main source of replenishments for the [Venezuelan] budget - has halved and the republic is losing over $1 billion in financial receipts every month. The national economy's main donor - Petroleos de Venezuela Corporation - is fighting legal claims in U.S. and Canadian courts to the tune of $2.5 billion. The opposition gained control over the foreign assets of strategically important Venezuelan companies and production enterprises. Banks in Britain are refusing to return 80 tonnes of Venezuela's gold reserve," Kostyukov told the Moscow Conference on international Security on Thursday.
The U.S. is pressuring the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) into funding the Venezuelan opposition, he said.
"Under the pressure from the White House, the IADB, in which the U.S. is the biggest shareholder, has demonstratively refused to hold another meeting in China in March over Beijing's refusal to issue a visa to the opposition appointee Juan Guaido. At the behest of Washington, the bank's top management expressed an intention to grant a $50 billion loan to rebuild national economy to the new pro-Western government of Venezuela which is supposed to replace [President Nicolas] Maduro. It is thought that this should spur foreign investors of Caracas to refuse from cooperating with the current authorities," Kostyukov said.