UNITED NATIONS, September 27. /TASS/. Venezuela has embarked on a path of sustainable economic development and now is stronger than it was before the political crisis, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

"What I want to say is that Venezuela is now stronger than ever," he said. "Hardships have made us stronger. We have embarked on a path of sustainable economic development. We are quite well."

In the recent years, Venezuela has been living through an acute socio-economic crisis accompanied by hiking prices, food and medicines shortages and devaluation of the national currency. Hardships force many Venezuelans flee their homeland. According to the UN statistics, about 2.3 million people had fled Venezuela by June. People go mostly to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

In 2017 and in early 2018, Venezuela was rocked by months-long mass anti-government protests amidst the presidential campaign. Maduro was reelected the country’s president. On August 4, he survived a life attempt.

Venezuela’s authorities deny any humanitarian problems in the country, saying it is about "normal migration flows," as Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez put it.