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Lavrov urges not to speculate on issue of Russian contracts with Latin America countries

The Russian foreign minister urged to follow the principles of respect, democratic constitutional procedures in each separate country

© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Moscow calls against speculating on the issue of Russian contracts with Latin American countries because of changes in the political situation in a number of countries of the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"We’ve heard the words of a US assistant secretary of state, who said that Russia works in Latin America against US interests," the minister said. "I don’t want to comment on that, perhaps such conclusions are made to the extent of one’s own depravity."

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Moscow is convinced that democratic, constitutional processes must be respected in full. "They must be respected in every state, and there should be no outside interference, no attempts to influence these processes, no attempts to incite some political forces against those that are disliked in other capitals - they are absolutely unacceptable," the Russian foreign minister said.

"Latin America has in effect the so-called ‘democratic clause’, meaning that coups d’etat are unacceptable as a method of change of power in one or another country," he said. The same principle applies to the African Union. A couple of years ago, Russia proposed to fix the corresponding principle in the United Nations."

According to Lavrov, the speculations suggesting that after elections the countries of Latin America will begin to turn away from those partners who were friends with the previous governments are unscrupulous practices. Russia "welcomes any results of the democratic and constitutional processes in each country," the Russian foreign minister said.

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"The foreign minister of Argentina will come to visit us tomorrow; it has been mentioned that Venezuela has a new parliament and there is the president’s confrontation with the legislature there, so contracts with Russian companies may be revised in Venezuela," Lavrov said. "There is the international practice, legal procedures for such cases. For example, we have heard from Argentina’s new leadership the confirmation of its course towards further development of cooperation in all spheres agreed upon with the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (former President of Argentina)."

"Therefore, I would urge not to speculate on these issues, but to adhere to the uniform criteria - the principles of respect, democratic constitutional procedures in each separate country", the minister said.

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