For the umpteenth time, Venezuela has clawed back from the brink of near sovereign default, making a $1.2-billion payment on a PDVSA state oil company bond Friday, which was its absolute last chance before the ISDA's repo men, who rule on whether a type of bond insurance known as credit default swaps should be invoked, moved in. Riding to its rescue was Russia, which has an enormous stake in Venezuela's oil production, including even its Citgo refineries.  Russia agreed to renegotiate $3 billion of the straight sovereign debt Venezuela owes it, in what is believed to have been from arms sales to then-living Hugo Chávez's government. That $3 billion gave Venezuela enough wiggle-room liquidity to shell out for the PDVSA bonds this one last time...until the next.  This is Russia's third bailout of the socialist hellhole, for what it's worth.  There will be more. The Wall Street Journal and the New York...(Read Full Post)