文/Feiyun
Putin’s best friend is also unreliable. In order to make money, he actually reached a cooperation with the United States.
According to Global Network news, on December 30, local time, people familiar with the matter revealed that American energy giant Chevron dispatched two oil tankers to Venezuela, one of which will carry the first batch of oil shipped from Venezuela to the United States.
(gas station owned by Chevron Corporation of the United States)
Venezuela has reached energy cooperation with the United States, which is undoubtedly a surprising thing. You know, as early as 4 years ago, Venezuelan President Maduro announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the United States. 44 years ago, Venezuela has been under US sanctions.
Not only does the United States not recognize Maduro's legal presidential status, it also refuses to purchase oil from Venezuela and prohibits U.S. financial institutions from handling third-party payments for Venezuelan oil using U.S. dollars. Now the United States has suddenly relaxed its import of Venezuelan oil, which means that for the first time in four years, the United States has relaxed its sanctions on Venezuela.
("Caribbean Voyager" oil tanker)
Maduro rarely admitted that the US move was a step in the right direction, but it was still not enough. Venezuela demanded that the US completely lift sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry because the US measures clearly violated international trade rules. Obviously, this move by the United States gave Venezuela hope of additional conditions, and Maduro's anti-American attitude was also loosening, and he even began to have illusions about the United States.
However, the cooperation between the United States and Venezuela is definitely not a good thing for Russia.
Not long ago, the United States and the West announced a price ceiling of US$60 per barrel for Russian oil. To this end, Russian President Putin took a tough stance and directly ordered "no more sales" - that is to say, starting from February next year, Russia will stop selling oil to any customer who directly or indirectly adopts the US and Western price limit mechanism at any stage of oil supply.
(U.S. President Biden and Venezuelan President Maduro)
U.S. President Biden had personally gone to Saudi Arabia to ask OPEC+ to increase oil production, but the results were dismal. Biden failed and OPEC oil production fell instead of increasing. Now that Rosneft is no longer selling, how can we fill this gap? After much thought, the United States had no choice but to approach its former arch-rival Venezuela and take the initiative to make concessions. Biden's move can be regarded as finding Putin's weakness.
But the reason why Venezuela agreed to cooperate with the United States was naturally due to its own interests.
On the one hand, Venezuela's economic situation is very bad, with per capita income far below the world average and the unemployment rate of local residents rising year after year. Cooperation with the United States is an opportunity to improve the economic situation.
(Venezuela in economic quagmire)
On the other hand, although Venezuela is the largest oil producer among Latin American countries, its refinery lacks spare parts and is no longer operational. It has the world's largest oil reserves, but it is difficult to turn them into real money. As for this cooperation, Venezuela can make a lot of money as long as it transports massive amounts of crude oil to the United States. Doing so was in Venezuela’s national interest, and Maduro readily agreed.
What is regrettable is that it was almost commonplace for Maduro to criticize the United States before, and the relationship between the United States and Venezuela is also quite difficult to reconcile. When a "mercenary coup" broke out in Venezuela, Venezuela accused the United States of being behind it and produced corresponding evidence. Even after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out, Maduro also opposed the United States and expressed without hesitation his full support for Putin.
(Maduro and Putin)
The relationship between Venezuela and Russia has always been "iron", but the relationship between countries is not comparable to loyalty. In the face of interests, Venezuela still chose the United States.
Now, with Venezuela’s oil supply, Russian energy has been dealt a heavy blow. Venezuela’s move is equivalent to robbing Russia of business, easing U.S. oil prices, and also greatly easing the U.S. energy situation. Judging from this incident alone, it seems to perfectly confirm what netizens said - there is no eternal friendship between countries, only eternal interests.
