Russian officials and business representatives could participate in the launch of the world’s first government cryptocurrency — Venezuelan Petro. This assumption is contained in an exclusive report in Time Magazine.
“In fact, Petro actually was the joint work of a half — secret joint project between the Venezuelan and Russian officials and businessmen, whose purpose was to weaken the impact of us sanctions,” — said in report Time.
Citing anonymous sources among officials, the publication claims that billionaires Denis Buddies and Fedor Bogorodskiy advised Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the project on creation of the state of cryptocurrency provided by oil. According to the magazine, both entrepreneurs have connections with the largest Russian banks, and are “Kremlin adviser”: it is assumed that they oversaw the development of Petro, with the support of President Vladimir Putin.
According to Time Magazine, received from an anonymous representative “of the Russian Bank working with cryptocurrency”, President Putin signed the corresponding orders in the last year.
“People close to Putin, he said (to President Maduro – approx.) how to avoid sanctions. So it all started,” said the source Time.
Note, the Russian government denied involvement in the project on the development of cryptocurrency, while representatives of the Ministry of Finance has informed that “none of the representatives of the Russian authorities in the field of Finance was not involved in the creation of Petro”. The journalists also wait for the answer of the Venezuelan party who has not given their comments.
We will remind, the President of the United States Donald trump (Donald Trump) has imposed official sanctions against Petro, signed a decree blocking the sale of the cryptocurrency to US residents.
The administration of Venezuelan President has already issued an official statement in which Nicolas Maduro condemned the sanctions, noting that they contradict the UN Charter and norms of international law, and called them “an attack on the Venezuelan people”. In addition, in his Twitter account, Maduro said that such a move by the us authorities suggests that the President trump “scared,” the alleged power of Petro, which in turn proves that his country is “on track”.
Meanwhile, a lot of comments about the new restrictive measures against Venezuela comes from the US. It is reported that Senator Robert Menendez (Bob Menendez), who has repeatedly called for imposing sanctions in relation to transactions with Petro, said that he welcomes the new sanctions, adding that “the international community must continue to coordinate efforts to increase pressure on the Maduro regime”.
Member of the chamber of the U.S. Congress from Florida Ileana ROS-Lehtinen (Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) also supported the decision of Donald trump, but urged “the administration of the President to continue to build on this momentum and use all the tools available to increase pressure on Maduro,” noting that it should “find a way to support people and their humanitarian needs.”
“Maduro desperately tried to use the new scheme, including digital currency Petro, in order to avoid liability and to defend their power. The administration should increase pressure on the regime and support the people of Venezuela,” wrote ROS-Lehtinen on Twitter.
We will remind, Venezuela announced the start of Pre-ICO tokens Petro on February 20. According to the President of the country during the presale has collected at least $5 billion, however, official confirmation of this information.
