Description: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro while visiting Moscow for the scheduled Victory Day parade on 09 May signed a comprehensive strategic agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement was announced a day earlier and emphasized the close bilateral ties between the two countries in a tentative geopolitical climate. The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov labeled the agreement as a document of high importance and value, especially within the energy sector. The agreement mostly encompassed closer cooperation between Venezuela and Russia within the exploration of oil and gas deposits within OPEC+ and stated to be established in good faith while avoiding unfair and illegal trading practices. The leaders also pledged closer cooperation within the UN and other variety of organizations in the area of arms control and presented a joint oppositional front regarding the imposition of unilateral sanctions, closely referring to the US.
Impact: Putin’s Victory Day parade would represent the largest joint meeting of leaders opposing the so – called alliance of western countries which would be used as a summit to consolidate power and conceptualize strategies. The agreement between Venezuela and Russia represented a direct message to the US as both countries are facing heavy sanctions and are largely involved in the illicit trade of oil and gas on the global black market. The highlight of the agreement is the joint cooperation in the oil and gas industries as Venezuela has the largest oil deposits in the world while Russia has effectively monopolized the gas market especially in Europe. The countries are signaling that despite heavy sanctions their economies would prevail as they have undisputable dominance on the natural resources markets. Venezuela’s economy has been largely depleted from internal political upheaval caused by Maduro’s controversial election win on top of the effects from the sanctions which prohibit the country to exploit its oil reserves. Russia has so far managed to persist the effect of the sanctions which it has effectively circumvented and used the proceeds from the gains of its shadow fleet to keep its economy afloat.