Venezuelan President expresses support for Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Kremlin told reporters that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro expressed his “strong support” for Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone conversation between the two, six days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Nicolás Maduro expressed his strong support for Russia’s key actions, condemning the destabilizing activity of the United States and NATO and emphasizing the importance of fighting the campaign of lies and disinformation launched by Western countries.”

Putin, in turn, “shared his view of the situation regarding Ukraine, stressing that the goals of the special military operation were to protect the civilian population of Donbas,” pro-Russian separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, as well as “Russian sovereignty over Crimea, demilitarization and denazification of the Ukrainian state, and ensuring its neutral and non-nuclear status.”

The Russian-Venezuelan relationship dates back to the era of the late President Hugo Chavez, who supported Russia during the lightning war with Georgia in August 2008 over control of South Ossetia. After the conflict, Moscow recognized the independence of this province and Abkhazia, another pro-Russian separatist Georgian region.

Chavez (1999-2013) also bought Russian weapons and military equipment for hundreds of millions of dollars amid an oil boom in 2014.

With information from AFP

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