Russian bank helps Venezuela defy US cryptocurrency sanctions

[Hydrogen]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Investors looking to buy Venezuela’s new cryptocurrency may want to head to a little-known Moscow bank whose biggest shareholders are President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government and two state-controlled Russian companies under U.S. sanctions.

Evrofinance Mosnarbank has emerged as the only international financial institution so far willing to defy a U.S. campaign to derail the world’s first state-backed digital currency, called the petro, even before it begins to function.

Early would-be investors who registered with Venezuela’s government and downloaded the petro’s wallet software — available in Spanish, English and Russian — were then invited to buy the cryptocurrency by wiring a minimum of 1,000 euros to a Venezuelan government account at Evrofinance.

The bank’s place in the rollout of the petro is further evidence of Russia’s role in the creation of a cryptocurrency that much of the digital world has shunned but that Maduro hopes will allow Venezuela to circumvent U.S. financial sanctions imposed last year.

At the petro’s launch on Feb. 21, Maduro heaped praise on two Russians in the audience who worked with wealthy, Kremlin-connected businessmen, thanking their previously unknown startups — Zeus Exchange and Aerotrading — for their role developing what he joked would be a kind of “kryptonite” against U.S. economic dominance.

A day later, he dispatched his economy minister to Moscow to brief his Russian finance counterpart.

And in March, the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain awarded the Venezuelan government an award for its role “challenging the de-facto powers of the international financial system.”

Russia’s interest in the petro stems from its own increasingly pariah status in the west, said Claiborne W. Porter, the former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s bank integrity unit. As relations with the U.S. and European Union become more tense, both countries are looking for ways to demonstrate political strength while moving money outside the American financial system.

“Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front,” said Porter, who is now the Washington-based head of investigations at consulting firm Navigant.

Russia has provided Venezuela with billions in debt relief over the years and is a major investor in the country’s oil industry. That financial lifeline has become more important since the Trump administration last year banned Americans from lending money to the nearly bankrupt government and now threatens to slap sanctions on the OPEC nation’s oil industry if Maduro goes ahead with presidential elections this month that are widely seen as a sham. In March, Trump signed an executive order banning Americans from any dealings with the petro.

Evrofinance and its executives didn’t return repeated email requests for comment. But after The Associated Press’ inquiries, all references to the bank were removed from the petro’s wallet, leaving prospective buyers with no guidance on how to actually buy it, though it’s still listed for sale in rubles and euros as well as three other widely circulated cryptocurrencies.

Venezuela’s government purchased a 49 percent stake in Evrofinance in 2011, making the bank, which traces its history back a century as a western financial outpost for the Soviet Union, a vehicle for binational trade and investment projects, with almost $800 million in assets.

The rest of the shares are held by two major banks, state-controlled VTB and Gazprombank, which were sanctioned by the U.S. and European nations in 2014 over President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

It’s unclear how many petros the government has sold. Maduro boasted this month that the government had raised $3.3 billion in the pre-sale phase. But so far only a small fraction of the petros appears to have been distributed to buyers, according to the blockchain where the digital currency’s movements can be publicly tracked.

Experts say that the petro is of little interest to foreigners other than drug traffickers and others active in Venezuela’s burgeoning criminal underworld. Even offshore trading platforms like Bitfinex are refusing to deal in the petro for fear of violating sanctions. Rating website ICOindex.com, which tracks initial coin offerings of cryptocurrencies, called it a “scam.”

“An overwhelming majority of ICOs don’t deliver on what they promise because their promoters are outright scammers or fall short on technical expertise,” said Alejandro Machado, a Venezuelan-born computer scientist who consults for crypto startups. “In the case of the Venezuelan government, both reasons apply.”

One of the two Russians who signed agreements with Maduro to position the petro globally, Denis Druzhkov, had been fined $31,000 and barred for three years by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for fraudulent trading in futures’ contracts. Zeus Exchange, which Druzhkov created alongside a Kremlin-connected industrialist, said in a statement that it has never had any business ties with the Venezuelan government and that Druzhkov resigned after abusing his authority.

The other, Fedor Bogorodskiy, used to help run the credit card division at a bank controlled by a Russian oligarch. He has lived in Uruguay since 2009, combining telecommunications business with part-time promotion of Russian culture. He told The AP that his company, Aerotrading, whose website consists of a single home page with no company information, immediately ceased all work on the petro after Trump announced his ban.

Despite the pressure, Maduro is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s given government institutions — from ministries to airports — 120 days to start accepting the petro as legal tender in all transactions. He’s also paved the way for the creation of 16 local exchanges where Venezuelans will be able to purchase petros with their fast-depreciating bolivars. Also in the works is a second state-backed cryptocurrency tied to the country’s gold reserves.

But gaining international acceptance remains an uphill battle.

Yuri Pripachkin, president of the Russian blockchain group that honored Venezuela, said that while the Kremlin is keeping a close eye on the petro it hasn’t been involved in its development. Still, he said as long as sanctions are used as a foreign policy tool to punish governments that challenge U.S. policies, the incentives to seek out alternative means of financing will remain. He also dismissed the idea that the petro could be used to fund criminal activity.

“That’s a fairy tale,” said Pripachkin. “The most popular currency for terrorists and criminals the world over is the U.S. dollar, not crypto, and nobody is suggesting we ban dollars. This is just an attempt to stop crypto from expanding.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-bank-helps-venezuela-defy-us-cryptocurrency-sanctions/2018/05/14/5b9c2988-5788-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html

Update on venezuela's petro as well as russia's alleged involvement.

There were a few interesting quotations made:

“An overwhelming majority of ICOs don’t deliver on what they promise because their promoters are outright scammers or fall short on technical expertise,” said Alejandro Machado, a Venezuelan-born computer scientist who consults for crypto startups. “In the case of the Venezuelan government, both reasons apply.”

He also dismissed the idea that the petro could be used to fund criminal activity.

“That’s a fairy tale,” said Pripachkin. “The most popular currency for terrorists and criminals the world over is the U.S. dollar, not crypto, and nobody is suggesting we ban dollars. This is just an attempt to stop crypto from expanding.”

Summary: Maduro issued an ultimatum to government institutions ranging from ministries to airports. They have 120 days to begin accepting the petro as legal tender in all transactions. Maduro also plans to issue a second crypto currency backed by venezuela's gold. It appears not much of the petro altcoin has been sold.

This is also of interest:

One of the two Russians who signed agreements with Maduro to position the petro globally, Denis Druzhkov, had been fined $31,000 and barred for three years by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for fraudulent trading in futures’ contracts. Zeus Exchange, which Druzhkov created alongside a Kremlin-connected industrialist, said in a statement that it has never had any business ties with the Venezuelan government and that Druzhkov resigned after abusing his authority.

The other, Fedor Bogorodskiy, used to help run the credit card division at a bank controlled by a Russian oligarch. He has lived in Uruguay since 2009, combining telecommunications business with part-time promotion of Russian culture. He told The AP that his company, Aerotrading, whose website consists of a single home page with no company information, immediately ceased all work on the petro after Trump announced his ban.

Looks like there are serious attempts being made to crackdown on anyone who offers support for the petro.

[dado7]

This sentence:
"Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front"
tells you something about it. When the power on the other side of the coin is trying to ridicule you, it means you have probably hit the right spot.

Although unfortunately, the Governments do things like this only as an activity to fight for power and supremacy, this Petro thing is actually something that people in Venezuela can benefit from so I second that. I don't know the situation in Venezuela all that well, so somebody from Venezuela could give you a better analysis.

Finally, the obvious penalizing of those supporting Petro could mean, again, they have hit the right spot. However, I haven't really understood who is penalizing them - Russia, USA, Venezuela?

[winterblues]

According to current US policy, that bank was probably just confused and deserves a chance to do the right thing (assuming we can profit from it financially in the long run).

[stompix]

This sentence:
"Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front" tells you something about it.

Load of ....... Everytime a socialist country turns into a dump it's the fault of the USA.
You know what those sanctions do? They prevent Americans business to deal with certain companies and people from Venezuela.If the leaders of Russia and Venezuela would be that smart they would manage somehow without those, but with no brains all they can do is blame.
If Venezuela is that angry at the US, why don't they stop selling oil ?

Although unfortunately, the Governments do things like this only as an activity to fight for power and supremacy, this Petro thing is actually something that people in Venezuela can benefit from so I second that.

How can the people in Venezuela benefit from this crapcoin?
Just one example.

Summary: Maduro issued an ultimatum to government institutions ranging from ministries to airports. They have 120 days to begin accepting the petro as legal tender in all transactions. Maduro also plans to issue a second crypto currency backed by venezuela's gold. It appears not much of the petro altcoin has been sold.

How about an ultimatum on shops to be stocked with bread and toilet paper?

[icobuffer]

Let's see, it can be interesting experiment

[eternalgloom]

This sentence:
"Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front" tells you something about it.

Load of ....... Everytime a socialist country turns into a dump it's the fault of the USA.
You know what those sanctions do? They prevent Americans business to deal with certain companies and people from Venezuela.If the leaders of Russia and Venezuela would be that smart they would manage somehow without those, but with no brains all they can do is blame.
If Venezuela is that angry at the US, why don't they stop selling oil ?

The US does have a proven track record of overthrowing regimes they don't like, while replacing them with sock-puppets of their own.
So the idea isn't that far-fetched.

Now, I don't think that's the case with Venezuela though, sanctions have little to do with the current problems there. Those sanctions are a reaction to those problems.
Once Chavez died, the oil price also started dropping, thus making the current government essentially bankrupt.

[omfg.xekcep]

Russia and Venezuela are similar in aspect of political government and both are developing countries with oil economics so they understand each other well and I am not surprised that Russian central bank will help Venezuela and as far as I know it is not a first time.
I consider that it is nice news because they are positive for crypto market.

[stompix]

Let's see, it can be interesting experiment

Yeah, what could be a more interesting experiment than playing with the life of a few million peoples.
Reminds me of the "Great Leap Forward" that killed 50 millions Chinese in an economic experiment.

The US does have a proven track record of overthrowing regimes they don't like, while replacing them with sock-puppets of their own.
So the idea isn't that far-fetched.

So does the UK, France and Russia.
The only difference is that where those western sock-puppets come to power people are not dying from hunger in poverty. North Korea vs South Korea, Kuwait vs Iran, Moldova and Belarus vs Poland and Hungary, Venezuela vs the entire world...choose anything...

[5ensei]

Russia will no doubt adopt blockchain technology so their banks are going to regulate and accept them. Petro is a national currency so why shouldn't Russian banks support it? Just because America does not approve does not mean it shouldn't be done

[dado7]

This sentence:
"Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front" tells you something about it.

Load of ....... Everytime a socialist country turns into a dump it's the fault of the USA.
You know what those sanctions do? They prevent Americans business to deal with certain companies and people from Venezuela.If the leaders of Russia and Venezuela would be that smart they would manage somehow without those, but with no brains all they can do is blame.
If Venezuela is that angry at the US, why don't they stop selling oil ?

The US does have a proven track record of overthrowing regimes they don't like, while replacing them with sock-puppets of their own.
So the idea isn't that far-fetched.

Now, I don't think that's the case with Venezuela though, sanctions have little to do with the current problems there. Those sanctions are a reaction to those problems.
Once Chavez died, the oil price also started dropping, thus making the current government essentially bankrupt.

The idea is not far-fetched, I agree, with USA it never is. I also agree with Stompix, Russia and Venezuela could be playing children's games. It is the usual strategy - find a common enemy in order to promote something, Russia that is, in this case.... However, the reaction of some of the politicans still show they might have hit the right spot....

About how Venezuela can benefit..... If Governments support the coin, it might not be the crapcoin anymore and by having it's own cryptocurrency, Venezuela could use it to stabilise the economy, and their people could use it to have a currency that is not in the hyperinflated.....

[amishmanish]

Yeah, what could be a more interesting experiment than playing with the life of a few million peoples.
Reminds me of the "Great Leap Forward" that killed 50 millions Chinese in an economic experiment.

The Venezuelan government want to trade using a cryptocurrency. What doesn't change is that they ultimately need the world currency, USD. That is why the under hand dealings with the said Russian bank. This does look like a way to get USD because the rest of the sources are sanctioned. USD are important for all sort of things needed to run a government. I'd say the arms, ammunition and technological spares needed to maintain control on the people. All of it needs to be imported in these countries.
If the government really just cared about the people and this was a sincere way to boost confidence and kickstart economy, the move would work if they made Petro openly tradeable while using it for direct trading in Oil with countries that would be willing. This would give the people a source to exchange value rather than just relying on a black-market supply of USD. What they are doing instead is to amass USD for themselves.

The US does have a proven track record of overthrowing regimes they don't like, while replacing them with sock-puppets of their own.
So the idea isn't that far-fetched.

So does the UK, France and Russia.
The only difference is that where those western sock-puppets come to power people are not dying from hunger in poverty. North Korea vs South Korea, Kuwait vs Iran, Moldova and Belarus vs Poland and Hungary, Venezuela vs the entire world...choose anything...

Umm.. The US world view and affect hasn't really been as benevolent as you are stating. Most of the time external interference has only worsened the situations. The US interventions motivated by oil hegemony and market for arms sales have been the cause behind most major conflicts in the world.

[shadyrifles]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Investors looking to buy Venezuela’s new cryptocurrency may want to head to a little-known Moscow bank whose biggest shareholders are President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government and two state-controlled Russian companies under U.S. sanctions.

Evrofinance Mosnarbank has emerged as the only international financial institution so far willing to defy a U.S. campaign to derail the world’s first state-backed digital currency, called the petro, even before it begins to function.

Early would-be investors who registered with Venezuela’s government and downloaded the petro’s wallet software — available in Spanish, English and Russian — were then invited to buy the cryptocurrency by wiring a minimum of 1,000 euros to a Venezuelan government account at Evrofinance.

The bank’s place in the rollout of the petro is further evidence of Russia’s role in the creation of a cryptocurrency that much of the digital world has shunned but that Maduro hopes will allow Venezuela to circumvent U.S. financial sanctions imposed last year.

At the petro’s launch on Feb. 21, Maduro heaped praise on two Russians in the audience who worked with wealthy, Kremlin-connected businessmen, thanking their previously unknown startups — Zeus Exchange and Aerotrading — for their role developing what he joked would be a kind of “kryptonite” against U.S. economic dominance.

A day later, he dispatched his economy minister to Moscow to brief his Russian finance counterpart.

And in March, the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain awarded the Venezuelan government an award for its role “challenging the de-facto powers of the international financial system.”

Russia’s interest in the petro stems from its own increasingly pariah status in the west, said Claiborne W. Porter, the former head of the U.S. Justice Department’s bank integrity unit. As relations with the U.S. and European Union become more tense, both countries are looking for ways to demonstrate political strength while moving money outside the American financial system.

“Like kids on the playground, Venezuela and Russia think they are fighting a common bully in U.S. sanctions, so they’re going to try and form a united front,” said Porter, who is now the Washington-based head of investigations at consulting firm Navigant.

Russia has provided Venezuela with billions in debt relief over the years and is a major investor in the country’s oil industry. That financial lifeline has become more important since the Trump administration last year banned Americans from lending money to the nearly bankrupt government and now threatens to slap sanctions on the OPEC nation’s oil industry if Maduro goes ahead with presidential elections this month that are widely seen as a sham. In March, Trump signed an executive order banning Americans from any dealings with the petro.

Evrofinance and its executives didn’t return repeated email requests for comment. But after The Associated Press’ inquiries, all references to the bank were removed from the petro’s wallet, leaving prospective buyers with no guidance on how to actually buy it, though it’s still listed for sale in rubles and euros as well as three other widely circulated cryptocurrencies.

Venezuela’s government purchased a 49 percent stake in Evrofinance in 2011, making the bank, which traces its history back a century as a western financial outpost for the Soviet Union, a vehicle for binational trade and investment projects, with almost $800 million in assets.

The rest of the shares are held by two major banks, state-controlled VTB and Gazprombank, which were sanctioned by the U.S. and European nations in 2014 over President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

It’s unclear how many petros the government has sold. Maduro boasted this month that the government had raised $3.3 billion in the pre-sale phase. But so far only a small fraction of the petros appears to have been distributed to buyers, according to the blockchain where the digital currency’s movements can be publicly tracked.

Experts say that the petro is of little interest to foreigners other than drug traffickers and others active in Venezuela’s burgeoning criminal underworld. Even offshore trading platforms like Bitfinex are refusing to deal in the petro for fear of violating sanctions. Rating website ICOindex.com, which tracks initial coin offerings of cryptocurrencies, called it a “scam.”

“An overwhelming majority of ICOs don’t deliver on what they promise because their promoters are outright scammers or fall short on technical expertise,” said Alejandro Machado, a Venezuelan-born computer scientist who consults for crypto startups. “In the case of the Venezuelan government, both reasons apply.”

One of the two Russians who signed agreements with Maduro to position the petro globally, Denis Druzhkov, had been fined $31,000 and barred for three years by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for fraudulent trading in futures’ contracts. Zeus Exchange, which Druzhkov created alongside a Kremlin-connected industrialist, said in a statement that it has never had any business ties with the Venezuelan government and that Druzhkov resigned after abusing his authority.

The other, Fedor Bogorodskiy, used to help run the credit card division at a bank controlled by a Russian oligarch. He has lived in Uruguay since 2009, combining telecommunications business with part-time promotion of Russian culture. He told The AP that his company, Aerotrading, whose website consists of a single home page with no company information, immediately ceased all work on the petro after Trump announced his ban.

Despite the pressure, Maduro is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s given government institutions — from ministries to airports — 120 days to start accepting the petro as legal tender in all transactions. He’s also paved the way for the creation of 16 local exchanges where Venezuelans will be able to purchase petros with their fast-depreciating bolivars. Also in the works is a second state-backed cryptocurrency tied to the country’s gold reserves.

But gaining international acceptance remains an uphill battle.

Yuri Pripachkin, president of the Russian blockchain group that honored Venezuela, said that while the Kremlin is keeping a close eye on the petro it hasn’t been involved in its development. Still, he said as long as sanctions are used as a foreign policy tool to punish governments that challenge U.S. policies, the incentives to seek out alternative means of financing will remain. He also dismissed the idea that the petro could be used to fund criminal activity.

“That’s a fairy tale,” said Pripachkin. “The most popular currency for terrorists and criminals the world over is the U.S. dollar, not crypto, and nobody is suggesting we ban dollars. This is just an attempt to stop crypto from expanding.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-bank-helps-venezuela-defy-us-cryptocurrency-sanctions/2018/05/14/5b9c2988-5788-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html

Update on venezuela's petro as well as russia's alleged involvement.

There were a few interesting quotations made:

“An overwhelming majority of ICOs don’t deliver on what they promise because their promoters are outright scammers or fall short on technical expertise,” said Alejandro Machado, a Venezuelan-born computer scientist who consults for crypto startups. “In the case of the Venezuelan government, both reasons apply.”

He also dismissed the idea that the petro could be used to fund criminal activity.

“That’s a fairy tale,” said Pripachkin. “The most popular currency for terrorists and criminals the world over is the U.S. dollar, not crypto, and nobody is suggesting we ban dollars. This is just an attempt to stop crypto from expanding.”

Summary: Maduro issued an ultimatum to government institutions ranging from ministries to airports. They have 120 days to begin accepting the petro as legal tender in all transactions. Maduro also plans to issue a second crypto currency backed by venezuela's gold. It appears not much of the petro altcoin has been sold.

This is also of interest:

One of the two Russians who signed agreements with Maduro to position the petro globally, Denis Druzhkov, had been fined $31,000 and barred for three years by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for fraudulent trading in futures’ contracts. Zeus Exchange, which Druzhkov created alongside a Kremlin-connected industrialist, said in a statement that it has never had any business ties with the Venezuelan government and that Druzhkov resigned after abusing his authority.

The other, Fedor Bogorodskiy, used to help run the credit card division at a bank controlled by a Russian oligarch. He has lived in Uruguay since 2009, combining telecommunications business with part-time promotion of Russian culture. He told The AP that his company, Aerotrading, whose website consists of a single home page with no company information, immediately ceased all work on the petro after Trump announced his ban.

Looks like there are serious attempts being made to crackdown on anyone who offers support for the petro.

Until now I understand from this news and article is Russian Banks secretly helped Venezuela launch the oil-backed cryptocurrency. The Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain awarded the Venezuelan government the Satoshi Nakamoto prize which held by CCN. It would be interesting to see the next move of Russian investors.

[audaciousbeing]

All they are doing is playing on each others ego and as it has been from time immemorial, it will be till the future between the United States and Russia. The approach they are using is "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" that's why Venezuela feels free to relate with Russia rather than other country not knowing that whatever Russia is doing is like a testing ground while they use Venezuela as the guinea pig. If this can render the sanction of the United States ineffective, it then give everyone including Russia a clue and a way out in going heads on against the United States and if it doesn't it means Venezuela will have to suffer more economic devastating effect.

[_bitcoin_papa_]

It is high time. I think that the state and the crypto currency should not be at war with each other. The state should support the crypto currency and make the world more perfect with its help.

[ivrynx]

I don't see anything wrong with this, I think this move by russia only shows that they do accept cryptocurrency and that they are willibf to help others as well, unlike US they are trying to act tough, but theu are forgettinf abour their rival, russia and china, as of now both russia anf china arw winning the race for cryptocurrency dominance, there is no wonder why the US wants cryptocurrency to be destroyed  or fall down, but what they don't realize is that the precioua petrodollar will be replaced, because a lot of green energy is beinf produced and mostly those that supports green energy are ICOs.

[senin]

It is interesting to see how, on the one hand, the President of Venezuela, Maduro, actively introduces his national Clypto-currency of El Petro, and on the other hand, how Venezuela and Russia try to circumvent international sanctions with the help of this El-Petro and Trump's efforts to block the possibilities of this national crypto currency . In general, this situation gives popularity to the crypto currency, even though it is used in this way. It should be recognized that Maduo was again recently re-elected president of the country, which indicates a relative trust of the people to him.
Russia at the initial stage, as always, refused to participate in the release of El-Petro, but now such participation has already been traced explicitly.

[stompix]

All they are doing is playing on each others ego and as it has been from time immemorial, it will be till the future between the United States and Russia. The approach they are using is "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" that's why Venezuela feels free to relate with Russia rather than other country not knowing that whatever Russia is doing is like a testing ground while they use Venezuela as the guinea pig. If this can render the sanction of the United States ineffective, it then give everyone including Russia a clue and a way out in going heads on against the United States and if it doesn't it means Venezuela will have to suffer more economic devastating effect.

The guinea pig is on its deathbed.

Venezuela Army Sent to Enforce Food Prices as Currency Crashes
http://www.newsweek.com/venezuela-army-sent-enforce-food-prices-currency-crashes-989556

The petro was supposed to get rid of those, yet...where is the petro?

Maybe because even countries outside the influence of the US don't give a damn about this crapcoin?
India Won’t Pay for Venezuelan Oil With ‘Petro’ Cryptocurrency

It is interesting to see how, on the one hand, the President of Venezuela, Maduro, actively introduces his national Clypto-currency of El Petro, and on the other hand, how Venezuela and Russia try to circumvent international sanctions with the help of this El-Petro and Trump's efforts to block the possibilities of this national crypto currency .

I really don't understand how this petrocoin is helping Venezuela avoiding sanctions.
If somebody doesn't give a damn about sanctions, they will trade with Venezuela, bolivar rubles, yuans, anything they want, if they follow the sanctions they won't be is $, Euros or petrocoins.

~ snip

The idea is not far-fetched, I agree, with USA it never is. I also agree with Stompix, Russia and Venezuela could be playing children's games. It is the usual strategy - find a common enemy in order to promote something, Russia that is, in this case.... However, the reaction of some of the politicans still show they might have hit the right spot....

About how Venezuela can benefit..... If Governments support the coin, it might not be the crapcoin anymore and by having it's own cryptocurrency, Venezuela could use it to stabilise the economy, and their people could use it to have a currency that is not in the hyperinflated.....

Why would a centralized coin controlled by the same incompetent government succeed where the currency controlled by the same stupid government has failed?

[RamonBTC]

The bad thing in this shenanigans is that instead of a technology based arguments about cryptocurrency it turns into a political issues that is not even fair. I know that the sanctions is warranted and justifiable, but with such criticism it dies on its own. Now another country is meddling just to counter any negativity from one.

This is not good in the cause of cryptocurrency, it just make things worsts.

When will be the first time this countries will take a step back and think for what is good for this community than they’re geopolitical standing.

[darkangel11]

So, in short, A speculative altcoin that isn't even popular among its target audience (the people of Venezuela), got support from Russian speculators that have a tendency to work for certain businesses and disappear and move abroad, to countries where the hand of law doesn't reach. That's some entertaining news. Scammers have the tendency of attracting each other. They're drawn to one another like magnets.

Predictions? Petro will die due to early lack of interest and bans from all sides. But that's for the better. Also, if your first crypto failed, launching another one isn't the best move. Maybe people want a stable economy instead of surrogates and distractions?

[Cynooza]

It seems the only thing that can help Venezuela is ovethrowing of their current government. These are not US sanctions killing the country, but completely incompetent socialist government.