WASHINGTON, April 6. /TASS/. Steps made by Russia to support Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have little impact on the situation on the ground, a high-ranking US administration official said during a phone briefing on Friday.
"I think that the goal of the Russians with Maduro is to give him the false sense of confidence. Frankly… I don’t think that they change the dynamic on the ground for Maduro or lessen his susceptibility at all," the official said.
"If anything that they are providing to Maduro, it is indeed just that - a false, a very false sense of confidence," he added.
Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas on January 23. Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him as president. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted these actions as an attempted coup and said that he was cutting diplomatic ties with the United States.
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.