January 19 The U.S. government announced new sanctions against Russia and Venezuela on the 19th.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the same day announcing sanctions against a Russian company and its pipe-lay ship “Fortuna” on the grounds that it participated in the construction of the “North Stream-2” submarine gas pipeline project.
In another statement, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions on a number of entities, individuals and ships on the grounds of assisting the Venezuelan government to circumvent U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry.
The “North Stream-2” project aims to lay a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea floor, which can be transported to Germany and other European countries bypassing Ukraine.
The total length of the project is about 1,200 kilometers, and more than 90% of it has been paved. At the end of 2019, the United States announced sanctions against participating enterprises in the North Stream-2 project.
Since 2019, the United States has continuously put pressure on Venezuela to prohibit individuals or entities from other countries from importing Venezuelan crude oil.
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly called for the lifting of economic sanctions against Venezuela during the epidemic, and stressed that Venezuela, as a sovereign country, has the right to free trade with other countries and should not be subject to outside interference.
