Moscow: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday accused the US and its allies of actively attempting to topple the Venezuelan government through what they described as illegal economic sanctions. Lavrov’s criticism came amid a deepening political crisis in the South American country, where a self-proclaimed interim President, Opposition leader Juan Guaido, has been endorsed by the US and a slew of other countries in the region, further embattling the incumbent President, Nicolás Maduro, who retains Russia’s backing.
Maduro has so far resisted international pressure to slate fresh elections to solve the crisis. “The US and its closest allies are creating the most serious obstacles to the possibility of international assistance in resolving the crisis in Venezuela,” Lavrov told a Moscow press conference. He said Russia would do everything in its power to back what he described as Maduro’s legitimate authorities.
Russia’s top diplomat denounced sanctions that the US on Monday levelled against Petroleum of Venezuela, the state-owned oil and natural gas company, insisting such actions would simply aggravate the socio-economic crisis that engulfed the Latin American nation. (IANS)