MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The quality of work of US President Donald Trump’s advisers on Venezuela raises questions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the united editorial staff of RBC Group. A fragment of the interview was posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday.

Russia’s top diplomat thus commented on Trump’s statement that Russia "has informed us that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela."

"I was surprised when I read this. We did not notify anyone. He apparently read an article in The Wall Street Journal, on which both Rostec Corporation and our ministry have already commented. The article mentioned some thousands of Russian specialists who had now been withdrawn from there," Lavrov said.

"We have never made it a secret that our experts are servicing the hardware that was supplied to that country in compliance with legitimate contracts. The figure of 95 experts was mentioned: they last flew there and performed regular maintenance work required within the framework of our commitments under these contracts," Russia’s foreign minister said.

"I can’t even imagine from where this information has surfaced that we allegedly ‘informed’ Americans that we were pulling out our specialists from there [from Venezuela]. But this raises questions for me about the quality of those advisers who put reports on the table of the US president," Lavrov said. "This is obvious for me."