Venezuela is on the move to protect its assets in the face of increasing US sanctions. The overseas headquarters of some state-owned companies and financial operations will be relocated from western countries to ally Russia. The oil company PDVSA will be the first to make the move, transferring its European headquarters from Lisbon to Moscow. Aljosa Milenkovic reports from the Russian capital.

On the bank of the Moskva river and just across the Kremlin is the headquarters of the Rosneft, a state-controlled oil giant with shareholders and operations all over the world. Rosneft's oil business in Venezuela is one of the more significant.

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC MOSCOW "It is estimated that since the beginning of it's operations in Venezuela, Rosneft has invested over 9 billion USD there. Six out of those 9 billion were extended as a loan to PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company. And two point three billion dollars of that is supposed to be repaid by the end of this year."

Given the turbulent situation, can the debt be repaid? And can Rosneft continue working in Venezuela?

ALEKSEY MUKHIN CEO, THE CENTER FOR POLITICAL INFORMATION "It looks like Russia unofficially has sent to Venezuela members of some private security companies. They will provide security to Rosneft and other Russian operations on Venezuelan territory. Rosneft's own security service has enough resources which allows them to be confident about safety of their assets on the territory of the other country."

Analysts say the likelihood of Russia providing direct military support are slim to none. But it IS offering other forms of help to Maduro's government.

ALEKSEY MUKHIN CEO, THE CENTER FOR POLITICAL INFORMATION "Nicolas Maduro has bet on Russia and he sees that country as a guarantor of safe and reliable functioning of Venezuela's energy assets. There is nothing strange about that, because Russia stated long ago it's policy of 'exporting security'. It offered several countries that option. The first to use it was Syria and it is safe to say that they didn't regret it."

Venezuela and Russia have confirmed that some major Venezuelan businesses will soon move operations to Moscow. It's a move that will benefit both Venezuela and the Russian banks, since they'll be the ones to operate significant amounts of money coming from the sale of Venezuelan oil. But first, Venezuela has to find a way around the US sanctions on their oil exports.

VIKTOR SEMYONOV INSTITUTE FOR LATIN AMERICA, RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES "Now the PDVSA needs to urgently redirect oil deliveries to South and East Asia. India is the first place, where they have big oil refinery and close by is China and other countries - potential oil buyers. Whether they succeed or not is a big question, but it is a life or death struggle for them."

Major world powers are facing standoff over Venezuela. The question now is, who will blink first.

Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Moscow.