Reuters
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the reports that Venezuela had flown on board Russian gold planes to Mali were a figment of “non-scientific imagination.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s comment came in response to what the Venezuelan opposition said on Wednesday, where a representative of the Venezuelan opposition said that his country had sent gold to Mali in 2020 on board Russian-owned aircraft to exchange it for euros and US dollars, which enabled President Nicolas Maduro’s government to continue in power, despite the sanctions. American.
Julio Borges, appointed by the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, as his senior envoy abroad, told reporters that the gold was processed in Mali and then most of it was sold in the United Arab Emirates, so that the Maduro government could get at least one billion dollars worth in euros in particular. .
The United States accuses Maduro of rigging the 2018 elections that resulted in his re-election, and as a result, Washington imposed sanctions on the state oil company of Venezuela, a member of “OPEC”, in early 2019, with the aim of forcing Maduro to resign.
And the government of the socialist Venezuelan President resorted to selling gold as a source of income, in light of the decline in central bank reserves to the lowest level in 50 years.
“We ask the American and European authorities to develop their systems to dismantle these organized crime groups,” said Borges, adding that the opposition monitored the Venezuelan gold trade over the past year, which resulted in a report that I submitted today.
Source: RIA Novosti + Reuters
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