OREANDA-NEWS. The United States is not yet ready to impose sanctions on Rosneft for the oil business in Venezuela, but may consider possible restrictive measures in the future. This was announced on Tuesday by US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams during a telephone briefing broadcast in Brussels.

"Yes, the United States may impose sanctions on Rosneft for its activities in the Bolivarian Republic, but we have not reached this point", he said, answering the question whether Washington could impose sanctions on Rosneft for conducting the oil business in Venezuela. "I believe that Rosneft makes a lot of money in Venezuela. I believe that they buy crude oil in Venezuela at a great discount, then they sell them final products, for example, fuel oil, kerosene, gasoline. They help Venezuela, but they squeeze it they’re making money dry and at some point we’ll have to study the possibilities and what kind of retaliatory measures we can apply to Rosneft”, he said.

Earlier, Abrams admitted that, while working in Venezuela, Rosneft doesn't violate existing US extraterritorial sanctions against this country. On August 5, US President Donald Trump signed a decree on the complete blocking of the property of the Venezuelan government in American jurisdiction and a ban on any provision of financial means, goods and services to him. The blocking applies to the assets of all departments of the government of the Latin American country, as well as the Central Bank of Venezuela and the state oil company PDVSA.

The head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, said that what was happening in Venezuela was a purely internal affair of this state and US interference there was unacceptable. According to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, the events in the Bolivarian Republic show the real attitude of the West to international law.