Today’s entry - Why (doesn’t) MSM discuss the reason Russia and China are involved everywhere? Countries like Venezuela, Syria, N Korea owe R and C money. They will not let M fail since he will cowtail and give them, oil or sovereignty as payment. Then they have a foothold.
Bottom Line: This is a great point and an important aspect of the Venezuelan dynamic to understand. Why, aside from some similarities in political philosophy are China and Russia, so interested in maintaining the status quo with Maduro? I don’t think we should completely discount the desire for them to have a puppet dictator in the region, all of these countries are far removed from the Americas, but yes, there’s a huge money trail to follow.
As the Maduro regime nationalized private industries and collapsed the economy, Venezuela began to become propped up by these countries. According to the CIA’s public debt database, Venezuela owes more than $100 billion to (predominantly) China and Russia. Venezuela's economy has been in recession for over five years and its most recent GDP, total economic output, was only $371 billion. That’s not free cash flow of $371 billion. That’s the entire economy. There’s no end in sight in terms how long it’d take to pay off China and Russia. That’s a lot of motivation for them to want to keep Maduro in place until they get their money back at a minimum. And they know that one way or another than can get their money back because Venezuela has more of something than any other country. Oil.
Venezuela’s proven oil reserves stand at 300 billion barrels. That’s enough to repay their debt about 200 times over. By comparison, Russia’s reserves stand at 80 billion barrels. This is doubtlessly why there’s so much specific interest in the country. That’s also clearly the path forward here if we can find a non-military solution. Strike a deal for full repayment based on proven reserves. Perhaps that’s what the US is attempting to do behind the scenes? Regardless you’re right on point about it being about the Benjamin's.
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