In the crisis in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has at least one ally in South America. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro assured his Russian counterpart of his support on Tuesday.
“Venezuela is with Putin, he is with Russia. It (Venezuela) stands with the courageous and just causes in the world,” President Maduro said on television during the Council of Ministers as the Russian parliament gave the green light on Tuesday to a military operation in Ukraine.
In the footsteps of Chavez
Nicolas Maduro also recalled that his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez had supported Russia when it recognized the independence of South Ossetia in 2008 during the conflict with Georgia. “Always Venezuela, always the Chavista revolution with Putin, with Russia, with the Russian people”, he added, believing that the United States and “NATO intend by military means to end Russia” .
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borissov, who was in Caracas on Friday, stressed that Venezuela was a “strategic partner of Russia (…) in this situation of growing instability”. In the context of the crisis in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had not ruled out a Russian military deployment in Venezuela and Cuba. Moscow is also one of the main allies of Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election in 2018 was not recognized by part of the international community and in particular by the United States, which seeks to oust him from power.