Kremlin spokesman refutes allegations about Russia's help in ensuring Maduro's protection

TASS
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 09:53 UTC

© Mikhail Mentsel/TASS

Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov

Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has refuted media allegations that Russian nationals were sent to guarantee protection to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"No, of course, not," he said when asked to comment on corresponding reports. "Fear has magnifying eyes."

On January 23, Venezuelan parliament speaker and opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president at a rally in the country's capital of Caracas. Several countries, including the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay, have recognized him. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US.

Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey voiced support for Maduro, while China and Belarus called for resolving all differences peacefully and warned against foreign interference. The United Nations secretary general, in turn, called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, French President Emmanuel Macron, German government spokeswoman Martina Fitz, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jeremy Hunt and Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said on Saturday that their countries will recognize Guaido as Venezuela's interim president in case Maduro doesn't announce elections within eight days.

Comment: The allegations, according to Reuters:

Private military contractors who do secret missions for Russia flew into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for President Nicolas Maduro in the face of U.S.-backed opposition protests, according to two people close to them.

[...]

Yevgeny Shabayev, leader of a local chapter of a paramilitary group of Cossacks with ties to Russian military contractors, said he had heard the number of Russian contractors in Venezuela may be about 400.

But the other sources spoke of small groups.

Russia's Defence Ministry and Venezuela's Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment about the contractors. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We have no such information."

[...]

The contractors' task in Venezuela was to protect Maduro from any attempt by opposition sympathizers in his own security forces to detain him, Shabayev said.

"Our people are there directly for his protection," he said.

See also: Russia briefly deployed to Venezuela - White House got the message