MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Non-recognition of the Venezuelan presidential election by the United States and a number of Latin American countries is fraught with destabilization in and around Venezuela, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
"Despite the hysteria, the polls were held in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, which proves a high degree of civic responsibility of those Venezuelans who came to the polling stations, their commitment to the democratic procedure of the expression of will," the ministry said.
However, according to the Russian foreign ministry, the foreign factor has had a negative impact on the electoral process. "The United States and a number of other countries, including at the government level, have openly and officially refused to recognize the results of the voting a priori," the ministry said. "Obviously, such attitudes are fraught with serious and long-standing consequences. Notably, the campaign also targeted even those who disapproved of the current Venezuelan realities but were ready to come to the polling stations to demonstrate their preferences by peaceful means."
"A dangerous precedent has been created when the legitimacy of the electoral process is made dependent not only on the position of international observers invited to monitor it (300 experts from 40 countries of Latin America, Asia, North America and Europe, and a number of international organizations) but on a point of view of a number of states that was announced beforehand," the ministry stressed. "We think Latin American countries, which live through difficult periods from time to time, should take this factor into account."
"There is no doubt that calls for non-recognition of the elections mean calls for creating government vacuum, which is fraught with serious destabilization of the situation inside the country and around it," the ministry underscored. "Any state must have a government as a guarantor of socio-economic rights and needs of the population. The path to their implementation in Venezuela runs via national dialogue and reconciliation."
Moscow believes that "it will serve as a basis for the activities of the new government that is to be formed after the elections," the ministry noted. ""The logic of the development of domestic processes and actions by all political forces in the country should be in strict compliance with constitutional provisions and norms of the national legislation."
The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on all political forces in Venezuela to stick strictly to the national constitution and laws.
"The logic of the development of domestic processes and actions by all political forces in the country should be in strict compliance with constitutional provisions and norms of the national legislation," the ministry stressed.