The United States is taking sanctions against the Russian oil company Rosneft, of which the United Kingdom’s British Petroleum owns 20%.

The Americans have been ratcheting up financial and economic sanctions against the Maduro Government for quite some time. They now accuse the Russians of colluding with the Venezuelans in the sale of Venezuelan oil, which is undoubtedly true.

Yet, as Rossiiskaya gazeta points out, an American oil giant, Chevron, has long had a special relationship with the Venezuelan oil monopoly P.D.V.S.A., in the form of the company Petroboscán, and it continues to trade without any punishment from the U.S. Government. Not only that, Western oil services companies continue to operate in Venezuelan waters: namely, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger, and Weatherford.

Reporting from Havana, reporter Sergei Novikov, outlines the details: