Russia, which stands by Nicolas Maduro in the ongoing Venezuelan political crisis, will use “all available legal mechanisms” to defend its interests in the Latin American country, in which Russian oil giant Rosneft has invested and extended loans to Venezuela’s state oil firm in exchange for crude oil deliveries. Russia will defend its interests in Venezuela within the international law using “all mechanisms available to us,” Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, told Russian media on Tuesday. Russia has kept close ties with Maduro and has extended loans to Venezuela, including oil firm Rosneft lending money to Venezuela’s state-held firm PDVSA. Rosneft has extended US$6 billion of loans to PDVSA, which needs to be fully redeemed in crude oil supplies by the end of this year. According to S&P Global Platts , as of November 2018, Venezuela had US$3.1 billion outstanding loan to repay to Rosneft. The […]