Venezuela's 'Black Gold' Allies: How China, Russia and Iran Are Linked

Venezuela's 'black gold' allies: How China, Russia and Iran are linked

From 1999 onwards, successive governments pursued a strategy linking foreign policy, state financing and the management of the country's main industry. The result was a network of bilateral alliances that channelled much of Venezuela's crude outside conventional buying and selling circuits.

Venezuela's 'black gold' allies: Caracas' links to Cuba, China, Russia and Iran

For more than two decades, Venezuelan oil functioned less as a commodity and more as a diplomatic instrument, circulating through bilateral agreements,