The Russian Ministry of Finance Claims that Venezuela Did Not Offer to Pay Off Its Debts with the Cryptocurrency Petro

The Russian official denied allegations that Venezuela offered to pay off its debts with its recently launched cryptocurrency Petro, Reuters reports.

The director of the Department of state debt and state financial assets of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation Konstantin Vyshkovsky told reporters that the Venezuelan authorities did not offer to pay off the debt in El Petro cryptocurrency.

Petro continues to be a disputed cryptocurrency after its launch in February, and the US President Donald Trump announced a ban on purchasing by US citizens earlier this month.

We would like to remind you that a well-known American publication TIME published a material which says that the Russian government and business representatives of the country took an active part in launching the national Venezuelan cryptocurrency.

“People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions,” a Russian state bank executive told the publication, which published its expose on the 20th of March.

The "secured by oil" Venezuelan national cryptocurrency El Petro was launched on the 20th of February and attracted $735 million on the first day of the presale.