Russia says it will keep the roughly 100 servicemen it sent to Venezuela over the weekend, despite the US call for their removal.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the forces would remain in the Latin American country “for as long as needed.”
A Russian Air Force Antonov-124 cargo plane and a smaller Ilyushin Il-62 passenger jet brought the troops to Venezuela’s main airport outside the capital Caracas on Saturday.
“The presence of Russian specialists on Venezuelan territory is regulated by an agreement between the Russian and Venezuelan governments on military and technical cooperation that was signed in May 2001,” Zakharova said, adding, “Neither Russia nor Venezuela are provinces of the United States,” she said.
In recent months, tensions have increased between Caracas and Washington with the US imposing sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as well as his government.
In January, the US took the lead in recognizing Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s president after the head of the opposition-ruled Congress named himself the country’s interim chief executive. Washington has been pressuring other countries into following suit and has not ruled out using the military option to oust the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
US President Donald Trump also recently received Guaido and his wife at the White House.
Russia, China, and Cuba, however, back Maduro’s government in the face of the US pressure.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Washington of trying to “organize a coup d’etat” in Venezuela.
The foreign minister gave an interview to Press TV.
Venezuela’s military attache in Moscow was quoted by AFP as saying on Thursday that Russian troops were in the country under an agreement on military and technical cooperation and not to carry out a military operation.
“As for the presence of Russian specialists, we are talking about cooperation, military and technical cooperation,” the attache, Jose Rafael Torrealba Perez said, adding, “We are absolutely not talking about Russia’s military presence to carry out military operations.”
On Tuesday, Zakharova confirmed and defended sending military experts to Venezuela, saying the dispatch is based on a military-technical cooperation agreement signed by the two countries in 2001.
Asked to comment on earlier reports about the arrival of two Russian planes in Venezuela, Zakharova said military experts had been dispatched to Venezuela under a bilateral agreement inked 18 years ago.
“The Russian Federation develops its cooperation with Venezuela in strict compliance with the constitution of this country and with full respect to its legislative norms. Russian [military] specialists’ presence on the territory of Venezuela is regulated by the defense cooperation agreement that the Russian and the Venezuelan governments signed in May 2001,” she said.
Russia says the recent dispatch of military experts to Venezuela has been based on a military-technical cooperation agreement the two countries signed in 2001.
Russian troops ‘no source of threat’
Elsewhere in her remarks, Zakharova also spurned allegations that the Russian military presence in Venezuela posed a threat to the region.
“Russia is not changing the balance of power in the region, Russia is not threatening anyone unlike citizens in Washington,” she told reporters.
Referring to comments by Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who have respectively called for Russia to leave Venezuela, and vowed that Washington would try to end “Russian influence” in the Latin American country, Zakharova said, “Neither Russia nor Venezuela are provinces of the United States.”
The Kremlin also said on Thursday that Washington should not “worry” about Moscow’s relations with Venezuela, urging the United States to allow the crisis-stricken country to determine its own fate.
“We don’t think that third countries should worry about our bilateral ties,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding, “We are not interfering in Venezuela’s domestic affairs in any way and we expect third countries to follow our example and allow Venezuelans to decide their fate themselves.”
Peskov added that Russian military specialists are in Venezuela to service pre-existing contracts for the supply of Russian arms.
Press TV is a 24-hour English language news and documentary network, affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
IRIB is state-owned but independent of the Iranian government in its management and is the only legal TV and radio broadcaster inside Iran. IRIB’s head is appointed directly by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is considered to be close to the country’s conservative political faction. Press TV is headquartered in Tehran with offices and bureaus around the world; including London, Beirut, Damascus, Kabul, and the Gaza Strip.
*All posts on behalf of PressTV are made by Jim W. Dean
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Ms. Zakharova looking nice in purple. Always a pleasure to hear from the Director of Information. Are we being played? You betcha! Am I the only one here who watches the news with the sound turned off?
We must always realize the U.S.A. no longer controls or managements itself . It operates on cheap paper no gold to back it up . Jew financiers from the Central Bank disguised as the ” FED ” set the worth of the dollar at their discretion .Another ploy thats UnConstitutional . Trump is another puppet just as any Democrat thats installed into the White House supported by the LYING and here we go again Jew owned MSM . NO one makes it to the White House without Kosher approval and No one stays in any branch of the Federal Govt. on Capitol Hill without such approval . Main Stream Media is guilty in controlling and meddling in elections in the U.S.A. ….
Last time I looked Maduro was still in charge of Venezuela and Putin was still the leader of Russia. So how is it that T-Rump is telling those two what to do? Hahaha he is such a clown.
Trump looks like a Zionist Troika of Tyranny stooge puppet fool.
LMAO – Trump got punked
Venezuela: Guaido Barred from Public Office
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14409
Venezuela blocks Guaido from office as the opposition scoffs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics/venezuelas-guaido-barred-from-public-office-for-15-years-idUSKCN1R91NY
AN INFESTATION OF SNAKES
It is against the law to mention the Zionist/Bolshevik infestation of the United States so I won’t say anything at all about these “Commie Bastards” not only in but virtually running the United States under their Bolshoi oops, Bolshevik puppet in the White House dancing artlessly to their danse macabre.
Anyone who has taken business bankruptcies six times is a long, long way from coming to grips with capitalism. Being on the take in one of the marks of an incompetent beholden to thugs: helps I suppose until it comes time to pay the piper when all the Bolshoi ballet moves imaginable won’t save him tipping off-stage and into the pits from whence he came and dragging the United States down with him. That’s a leader of our great country incompetent against the forces assailing it with impunity and a clear intent to destroy it. We know who the Bolsheviks were and are to this day. Their handiwork was legend then, and Bibi at Fink’s bar stated their present, clear intent against the US.
“In the early hours of July 17, 1918, the prisoners were all slaughtered in the cellar of the house where they had been confined. The bodies were burned, cast into an abandoned mine shaft, and then hastily buried elsewhere. By 1994 genetic analyses had positively identified the remains as those of Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their daughters (Anastasia, Tatiana, and Olga), and four servants. The remains of Alexis and of another daughter (Maria) were not found until 2007.”
The U.S. and Israel have morphed into the two most dishonorable international outlaw countries on planet Earth and every other country should take immediate action to control them before they start WWIII and destroy every living thing on Earth and possibly Earth itself. Both of these thugs must be evicted from the UN which they give their middle fingers to every day. Then the rest of the world must organize against them lest all humanity and animals and plants be destroyed at the evil whims of the monsters U.S. and Israel. This is an emergency. Boycott both of these evil countries world wide. Do not sell them anything or buy anything from them. This is the only kind of language these Al Capone style gangsters might understand. We lowly citizens have totally lost control of our out of control government. Israel lover liar Trump, Pompeo and Bolton are MAD.
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