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Lavrov urges all countries to abandon idea of military intervention in Venezuela

On January 23, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president during an opposition rally in Caracas

ALGIERS, January 24. /TASS/. Moscow calls on all countries to give up the idea of military intervention in Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

"Of particular concern are signals from some capitals that outside military intervention is not ruled out. We call for abandoning such ideas," he stressed.

"We can see again the US, which is paranoically concerned about someone’s meddling in its election, failing to furnish any evidence, once again trying to act as the ruler of other people’s destinies and actually meddling in their domestic affairs," the minister noted. "There is even no need for Mueller’s commission (Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting an investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the US - TASS) here."

"We call on Venezuela’s opposition, the opposition, which, I hope, prioritizes the country’s national interests and caution it against becoming a pawn in someone else’s dirty and criminal game," Lavrov said.

According to Russia’s top diplomat, it is essential to act within the framework of the constitution and respect Venezuelans’ rights to determine their country’s fate. "The world community must help create conditions for a national dialogue, in which everyone has the right to express his or her view. However, that should not be accompanied by violence and calls for the violent overthrow of the legitimate government," he stressed. "Together with all other responsible states, we will be ready to help create conditions that will enable Venezuelans to start a dialogue relying on their country’s national interests."

On January 23, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president during an opposition rally in Caracas. A number of countries, including the US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Chile, have already recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim president. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro described these developments as an attempted coup organized by Washington and said he was breaking diplomatic ties with the US. Russia, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua and Turkey expressed their support for Maduro, while China called for resolving all disagreements peacefully and spoke out against outside interference.