US and Russia to discuss Venezuelan crisis Monday

The US special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abramswill meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and other Russian officials on Monday to discuss the situation in Venezuela, the State Department said on Saturday.

Abrams will talk with Riabkov and other officials "on March 18 and 19" in Rome on "deteriorating situation in Venezuela", says a statement from US diplomacy.

The US leader will also meet Italian officials, including Pietro Benbadi, diplomatic adviser to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

The United States has intensified in recent days the number of denunciations against Russia for its support to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and on Monday accused Moscow of "interventionism" for having continued to support him while Washington and 50 other countries have recognized the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó as interim president.

"Russia has also created this crisis, for its own reasons, it torpedoes the dreams and the democratic hopes of the Venezuelan people", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press conference Monday.

"Moscow, like Havana, continues to provide political coverage to the Maduro regime while putting pressure on other countries to ignore the democratic legitimacy of the interim president Guaidó," he added.

Pompeo also denounced the fact that the Russian state company Rosneft "continues to buy crude oil shipments" to Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), main source of foreign currency for state coffers and subject to US sanctions.

In addition, this week, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the Russian bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank for helping the Venezuelan government evade the economic sanctions imposed on Caracas, through the use of cryptocurrency. "petro".

The United States was the first country to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate president following his proclamation at the head of the state responsible for the country on January 23. Since then, he has taken various measures to put pressure on Maduro.