The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions against a subsidiary of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft over its key role in Venezuela, stepping up international pressure to break leftist President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power.

Rosneft Trading SA, which has helped sell Venezuelan oil despite unilateral US sanctions, and Rosneft vice president Didier Casimiro were targeted by the US Treasury Department.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement, “As the primary broker of global deals for the sale and transport of Venezuela’s crude oil, Rosneft Trading has propped up the dictatorial Maduro, enabling his repression of the Venezuelan people,”

Taking to Twitter, Pompeo said, “Those who prop up the corrupt regime and enable its repression of the Venezuelan people will be held accountable.”

Today we sanctioned Russian-owned oil firm Rosneft Trading S.A., cutting off Maduro’s main lifeline to evade our sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector. Those who prop up the corrupt regime and enable its repression of the Venezuelan people will be held accountable.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) February 18, 2020

The sanctions will block any assets of Rosneft Trading or the Belgian-born Casimiro that come through the United States. It also makes transactions with them a crime for anyone under US jurisdiction.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who recently returned from a global tour that included a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, hailed the new US pressure on Maduro’s regime.

Guaido took to Twitter, saying “This news is a victory!”.

“Whoever supports the dictator, no matter who they are or where they come from must bear the consequences,” he further added.

On February 12, Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido returned to the country after a 23-day international tour in which he defied a ban on leaving the country imposed by President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

However, Maduro retains the support of the powerful military and has resisted Guaido’s challenge, even as the United States ramps up the pressure with sanctions on government officials and agencies.

Guaido’s international trip was the second time he’d flouted the travel ban.

Guaido left Venezuela on January 19 heading to Colombia, several European countries, Canada and the United States, where he met with President Donald Trump, who threatened to “smash” Maduro’s regime.

Last January, Guaido invoked the constitution as head of the congress and declared Maduro a usurper. But a year on Maduro remains in power, despite a US campaign to cut off his government’s sources of financing by imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil sector, and Guaido’s attempts to encourage the military to rebel.

Pompeo told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the impending sanctions over Venezuela when they met at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Abrams said.

Lavrov earlier this month visited Caracas where he said US sanctions were illegal and “the main cause of the crisis in the Venezuelan economy.”

(With inputs from agency)