Russia & Venezuela: Guaido Illegitimate

Russia Has Largely Dismissed Pres Trump & John Bolton's Warnings to Exit Venezuela and is of the few nations who still believe Maduro is the legitimate President and Russia Has Valid Reasons for Being in the Nation

Russia in Venezuela:
Why Putin has sent troops to back up Nicolas Maduro

4-4-19, In a recent interview, in response to a question what Russian troops are doing in Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: "Venezuela is not going to be another Syria for Moscow. We have nothing to hide."
Last week two military planes carrying appx 100 Russian personnel arrived in Caracas, Venezuela. The Kremlin reports they were sent to do maintenance work on military equipment Russia supplied to Venezuela several years ago. Russia has valid legal reasons for being in Venezuela as it has been Russia's biggest partner in Latin America since the early 2000s. Russia owns two lucrative gas fields just off the Venezuelan coast, through the state-backed oil giant Rosneft. Moscow has also earned $11.4 billion selling military equipment to Caracas, and currently exports about $70-$80 million per year worth of non-military goods to the country. 
President Trump told Russia they should exit Venezuela and Russia's Lavrov shot back that the U.S. should get out of Syria first. Russia and the U.S. similarly backed different sides in Syria's civil war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin coming to the rescue has arguably kept dictator Bashar Assad comfortably in power. [..snip]

Undermining Washington's agenda in Venezuela doesn't require too many resources and offers a chance to retaliate for the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, which brought a U.S.- aligned government to power. The Kremlin believes the revolution in Ukraine was masterminded and orchestrated by the U.S. under Obama. One Russian analyst Frolov said: "The logic is… that we can also make your life harder in your backyard, just like you did in ours." -- CBS News


On January 31, 2019 Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, in an opinion article published by The New York Times said that the country's opposition has held secret talks with members of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro's security forces offering them amnesty in exchange for abandoning Maduro. -- Sputnik

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Russia has largely dismissed threats by U.S. officials such as Pres Trump, Sec of State Mike Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton said: "Actors external to the Western Hemisphere against deploying military assets to Venezuela, or elsewhere in the Hemisphere, with the intent of establishing or expanding military operations. Such provocative actions as a direct threat to international peace and security in the region." in remarks that received pushback from Moscow. -- Newsweek

​Tulsi Gabbard accused CNN host of goading Pres Trump into war with Russia
4-3-19, Recently Ms Tulsi Gabbard lashed out at CNN in an Instagram post accusing one host of goading Pres Trump into war with Russia. Gabbard is a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and a candidate for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. She is also a veteran of the Iraq War and is the first American Samoan and first Hindu to be elected to Congress.  She said: “TV talking heads love trying to goad Trump into going to war w/ Russia. Here’s just one example: Fareed Zakaria is trying to get Trump to prove he's not guilty of appeasement by going to war with Russia over Venezuela.”

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