Maduro, Putin talk after diplomat hints at military activity

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday stated he spoke by cellphone with Russian President Vladimir Putin about cooperation between the 2 international locations.

The decision got here per week after Russia’s chief negotiator in talks with the U.S. on tensions over Ukraine stated he would “neither verify nor exclude” the potential for Russia sending army property to Cuba and Venezuela if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their army actions on Russia’s doorstep.

Maduro’s workplace in an announcement stated Putin “expressed all his multidimensional help and backing for the protection of the sovereignty and in pursuit of the event of” the South American nation. The assertion stated the presidents spoke of the rise in commerce between each international locations, the launch of air service between Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and Moscow, and Russia’s provide of COVID-19 vaccines to Venezuelans.

“We exchanged on points associated to present cooperation in varied strategic areas on the highest degree, a relationship that's strengthened by the unbreakable union of our peoples,” Maduro tweeted.

Deputy International Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation on the talks with the U.S. in Geneva, on Jan. 13 spoke of the potential for deploying army property to his nation’s two allies within the Western Hemisphere. U.S. nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan dismissed the feedback as bluster.

Requested Monday about the potential for Russian missile deployment to Cuba and Venezuela, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters that “Russia is considering how to make sure its safety within the context of the present scenario.”

In December 2018, Russia briefly dispatched a pair of its nuclear-capable Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela in a present of help for Maduro amid Western stress.

Russia is a significant political ally of Venezuela, which has change into more and more remoted underneath financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union, accusing Maduro of undermining democratic establishments to carry onto energy, whereas overseeing an enormous financial and political disaster.

The U.S. doesn't take into account Maduro’s 2018 presidential election legitimate, and as an alternative acknowledges Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaidó because the troubled nation’s professional chief.