Russian Foreign The russian foreign ministry condemns new U. Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned new U. Russian-Venezuelan bank and Washington’s threats to punish Russia’s oil giant Rosneft for cooperating with Venezuela. Venezuela based on the principles of international law,” the ministry said in a statement. Monday imposed sanctions on Evrofinance Mosnarbank, a Moscow-based bank jointly owned by Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies, for “attempting to circumvent U. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that sanctions imposed outside the framework of the UN Security Council could not be considered legitimate. It said that the sanctions deprived the bank from providing the Venezuelan government with an “opportunity to work normally with foreign partners. By banning dollar operations of the bank, Washington is also undermining trust in the U.

The ministry also qualified threats by U. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo against Rosneft as senseless. It recalled that Rosneft was under U. 2014 but continued to work successfully, while former U. Rosneft that were forced by Washington to curtail cooperation with it have sustained a lot of losses. On Monday, Pompeo accused Rosneft of continuing to purchase oil from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.