These things are not separable. Russia, Iraq, Venezuela, Iran and much more are all part of the same issue, which is US empirical hegemony. That was the major point.

Venezuela has the technology to extract and refine their own oil. They cannot afford the replacements parts because of US sanctions, including seizing the assets of Citgo.

Russia had a contract with Exxon to develop tech to extract oil from the North Sea. Because of sanctions that didn’t happen. So they developed their own technology which is more efficient than our own for the purpose.

A lot of our technology is not our technology. Tesla immigrated from Serbia. Linus Torvalds is from Finland. Our space program may have gone nowhere without a Nazi scientist. Ultrasound was first used in Scotland. X-rays were developed in Germany. We really have to stop acting like US is the most innovative country on the planet. We have bought most of the tech we use. Even corporate structure predates the US. And if you develop something while working for a corporation, your ideas are the property of the corporation, not you.

While profit and ethics have been separated through history, they should not be. Nor can patriotism and the welfare of the populace, including peace. We live in a large world and comprise only 5% of the world population. Time to be better neighbors.