According to the Times magazine, the Russian government officials teamed up with some businessmen to help the Venezuelan government launch the first ever state-backed Cryptocurrency with Russian’s president, Vladimir Putin’s personal approval.

Petro announcement

Petro was first announced by the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro Moros in December 2017 to be used as a payment instrument that would evade International economic sanctions and blockade led by the United States. The pre-sale of the 82.4 million petro token in February was officially launched by president Maduro.

The Times magazine report points out on two billionaires with major links to Russian banks who acted as the advisors of president Maduro with regards to Petro. The two, Fyodor Bogorodsky and Dennis Drzhkov are reported to have been on the frontline of the invention besides their presence in the presidential palace having been acknowledged by Maduro during the much-hyped launch of Petro. The president alluded to the launch of petro as an aid in the fight against imperialism by the Americans.

Fedor Bogorodskiy is reported to be a resident of Uruguay and the director of Aerotrading. Denis Druzhkov is the CEO of Zeus trading. He was once fined nearly $31,000 for fraudulent trading in future contracts and was equally barred from trading at the Chicago Mercantile exchange for about 3 years.

Claims around Petro

According to the report, an executive at the Russian state bank said that the senior advisors to President Maduro with regards to Petro have greatly helped in the process and this had been signed off by president Putin in 2017. Further, he added that those close to Putin had advised that invention of Petro would be a way to avoid sanctions.

Moscow’s finance ministry has however disputed claims that some Russian officials were involved in the launch and development of Petro. No comments came from the Venezuelan government regarding the matter. The report has emerged after the US president, Donald Trump, barred its citizens from trading and acquiring the Venezuelan Cryptocurrency.

In an official statement however, President Maduro criticized the sanctions saying that this was sign that Trump was scared of Petro’s supposed powers. Further, he termed that as a violation of the United Nations charter and International laws.