Last weekend, the U.S. delegation met with the government of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to discuss alternatives to Russian oil imports to the U.S. and Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The meeting was reported by the CBS channel and confirmed by senior officials.
The U.S. is actively seeking to replace the Russian energy carriers, prompted by the demands from Ukrainian officials and domestic lawmakers to break from Russian oil and put pressure on Putin. Over the past weeks, the American delegation visited the Gulf states to negotiate oil exports to Europe to compensate for the loss should Putin decide to cut Europe off, says CBS.
Bloomberg reported earlier that the U.S. administration is close to imposing a ban on Russian energy carriers imports.
The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the Caracas regime in 2019 after Maduro was accused of rigging the elections. The Trump administration sought to topple Maduro and recognized the opposition leader Juan Guaido as the lawful leader, pushing Maduro closer to Russia.