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Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela Launch a Cryptocurrency To Evade US Sanctions (time.com)

According to an exclusive report by Time, Russia helped Venezuelan officials create the world's first state-backed cryptocurrency to skirt U.S. sanctions. The cryptocurrency was launched in late February and was banned by the Trump administration earlier this week. From the report: The new cryptocurrency, a form of digital cash that is supposedly linked to the value of Venezuela's oil reserves, was launched on Feb. 20 during a ceremony in the presidential palace in Caracas. Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of Venezuela, declared that it would serve as a kind of "kryptonite" against the power of the U.S government, which he sarcastically referred to as "Superman." Sitting in the front row at that ceremony were two of Maduro's Russian advisers, Denis Druzhkov and Fyodor Bogorodsky, whom the President thanked for aiding his fight against American "imperialism." Both men have ties to major Russian banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin. But they were not the most senior Russians involved. According to an executive at a Russian state bank who deals with cryptocurrencies, senior advisers to the Kremlin have overseen the effort in Venezuela, and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year. "People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions," says the executive, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity. "This is how the whole thing started."

12 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How long? by Ryanrule · · Score: 2, Insightful

    a bit after a russian shill promotes the idea

  2. First (conservative) post by null+etc. · · Score: 2, Funny

    But... but... but... Hillary Clinton lost the election and the only people who care about Putin's involvement in Venezuela's cryptocurrency are butt-hurt snowflakes who can't accept that their candidate lost.

  3. How's those sanctions working out? by rsilvergun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They seem to be doing a great job of getting them to hook up with Russia. They're also keeping food and medicine out of the country. I'd like to say that at least we're not supporting a dictatorship, but that ship kinda sailed when Trump congratulated Putin on his victory. Helping the Saudis bomb Yemen isn't helping either. We don't have a lot of moral ground to stand on in that theater.

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  4. Evade US sanctions by manu0601 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If the goal was just to evade US sanctions based on dollar, why not just trade oil in ruble or yuan?

    1. Re:Evade US sanctions by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

      If the goal was just to evade US sanctions based on dollar, why not just trade oil in ruble or yuan?

      It's simple: the sanctions are not based on any specific currency. This bypasses the sanction because "petro" is not a (recognized?) currency.

      I would however like to point out that Venezuela has put itself in a precarious position because any motivated nation-state could easily perform a 51% attack on "petro" and utterly destroy it.

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    2. Re:Evade US sanctions by JBMcB · · Score: 2

      I would however like to point out that Venezuela has put itself in a precarious position because any motivated nation-state could easily perform a 51% attack on "petro" and utterly destroy it.

      I'm guessing the blockchain is closed, so Venezuela can control how many clients connect to it. I don't think the Petro is designed for regular people to use, but as a method for the government to do forex trading with other countries.

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    3. Re:Evade US sanctions by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      And America needs to be constantly at war to help support its failed Democracy.

      Democracy is an awful way to run a country, but it's the best system we have. - Winston Churchill

      Although I have trouble understanding how only having two political parties to vote for makes a "Democracy".
      Especially since your guvment have been slowly chipping away at your own constitution for decades, next will be the right to bear arms. Most (if not all) of your nutters who shoots up a school was flagged as a potential risk, but NOTHING was done. WHY? So they can point at the violence and deaths and say, "See, guns are bad, only we the guvment should have them".

      America, the land of the not so free.

      Reagan shut down a LOT of mental institutions and all those nut jobs have been roaming the streets, it's a recipe for massacres as has been proved again and again, yet NOTHING is done. WHY?

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    4. Re:Evade US sanctions by mjwx · · Score: 4, Informative

      Democracy is an awful way to run a country, but it's the best system we have. - Winston Churchill

      If you're going to quote someone, quote them properly (or at least say your paraphrasing or from memory).

      "Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" - Winston Churchill, 11 November 1947.

      The full quote is:
      "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.â¦"

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  5. Leave Venezuela alone by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Their citizens have suffered enough already. Why focus on one dictator when the world is full of them?

    I'm glad Putin did it, even though he's an asshole in general, just like I'm glad Trump reduced H-1B "body-shop" application approvals even though I disagree with most his other stances. I'll give kudos to jerks when they accidentally do right.

  6. Re:CryptoCurrency could break the bank? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    or make a lot of bankers really pissed off, if all the nations that dont want to use the US petro-dollar for trade it could put a HUGE dent in the value of the dollar, which is not worth much nowadays anyway, i bet all those central banks around the world tied to the Rothschild bank and the Federal Reserve would be ready to start WW3 over it

    I don't think that's actually true because if it was then we would probably see burgeoning cryptocurrencies being absolutely demolished by 51% attacks. The banks could easily afford to commission their own ASIC chips and begin slaughtering cryptocurrencies en mass. That fact that they are not doing this means they don't see it as a true threat.

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  7. Re:So? by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 2

    Lol, you sure sound like one.

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  8. Secretly? by jbmartin6 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Russians secretly helped Venezuela by sitting in the front row at the launch ceremony. Good catch TIME

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