Venezuela owes Russia around $4 billion in outstanding loans, a fraction of the alleged $17 billion, Mikhail Emelianov, deputy chair of the Russian parliamentary committee on state building and legislation, said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2019) Venezuela owes Russia around $4 billion in outstanding loans, a fraction of the alleged $17 billion, Mikhail Emelianov, deputy chair of the Russian parliamentary committee on state building and legislation, said on Friday.Reuters published an estimate in January claiming Russia has lent the South American nation at least $17 billion in bailout funds since 2006, which it now risked losing.
"They have mentioned $17 billion... It is a total for accrued investment income and disbursed loans. Some of these credits have long been repaid, including military ones. Investments in the oil industry are hard to confiscate as they are in line with international laws... A new government might find it hard to take it all from us... As for the outstanding loans, I think they amount to $4 billion," Emelianov told reporters.
Russia-backed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused opposition leader Juan Guaido of being a US puppet bent on seizing power after he declared himself interim president in January. Guaido was almost immediately recognized by the United States and its allies in the region.
