Anatoly Kurmanaev

There's an old Soviet anecdote, you know, a schoolgirl is walking home and stumbles upon her drunken father.

And she says to him, Daddy, I heard that vodka is getting more expensive.

Does that mean that you're going to be drinking less?

And he goes, no, sweetie, it means you're going to be eating less.

And I think this analogy applies well to Venezuela.

Absolutely.

And again, we're coming back to the contradictions of this policy that we have talked about earlier.

The Trump administration's overarching goal is to stop the flow of migrants to the United States.

At the same time, it is dramatically worsening economic conditions in Venezuela, which, if it continues, is going to lead to another increase in migration from the country.

It's going to put pressure on Venezuela's neighbors.

And it's going to lead some of the people to head north towards the United States.

And this is a point that the Maduro government has been making very clear that the campaign to topple it from power is only going to create an economic crisis and political instability that's going to lead to a new migration crisis in the country.

That is a crucial question.

That is what I'm focused on because the headlines are dramatic.

The headlines are unprecedented.

But underneath these dramatic events actually appears to be a potential diplomatic solution.

Trump is saying that Maduro has stolen American oil, that he has defrauded American companies, that America wants its oil back.

And of course, Maduro has already offered Trump Venezuelan oil during an earlier round of negotiations that took place in the spring of this year.

The two governments have come pretty close to an agreement that would see a massive increase of American oil investment in the country and the country opening up and basically redirecting its flow of oil from China to the United States and opening up to American companies, American investments.

It would give the United States control over the world's largest known oil reserves, which in turn means that the U.S.