The Russian government has confirmed that Caracas made a debt payment on time on a finance deal worth $3.5 billion. The news came from Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
According to The Moscow Times:
The debt payment was due in March, but Siluanov said at the beginning of April that a grace period gave Venezuela another month to provide the funds, according to Interfax. He didn’t specify the amount of the payment and the Finance Ministry declined to provide details. In January, another ministry official said the upcoming payment was more than $100 million.
In recent years, Russia–along with China–has become a lender of last resort of Maduro’s embattled government. According to Deutsche Welle, Venezuela owes Russian oil giant Rosneft alone $6 billion.
Estimates of the amount of money that Venezuela owes to all foreign lenders ranges from $100 billion to $140 billion.
US Calls on More Nations to Deny Russia Air Space for Venezuela Flights
Morgan Ortagus, the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, tweeted a message earlier today praising an alleged decision by the government of Malta to deny its airspace to Russian aircraft on their way to Venezuela from the Middle East. In the same tweet, Ortagus called on “all countries” to do the same:
Earlier this week, it was reported that Malta had told Russia that it could not use its airspace for flights headed to Venezuela via Syria.
On March 23, two Russian aircraft landed at the Simon Bolivar International airport. The aircraft were there to deliver Russian military advisers and equipment, and arrived in the country after departing from Syria and flying over Malta.
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