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Moscow welcomes Venezuelan approach to building ties with other countries, says envoy

Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov stressed that the "Guaido project" was nothing but "an American chimera that neither has a future nor could it have one

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Russia supports Caracas’ open approach to cooperation and establishing new ties with other countries, Russian Ambassador to Venezuela Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov told TASS on Monday.

"The Western blitzkrieg for regime change in Venezuela failed thanks to the resilience and determination of the Bolivarian government and the people of this country. Nonetheless, Venezuelans have traditionally demonstrated their openness to cooperation," the envoy noted. "Now, given the current situation, they offer the opportunity to all countries, whose governments have made that mistake, to return to dialogue with Caracas without much loss of a picture. And this approach can only be welcomed," Melik-Bagdasarov emphasized.

The envoy stressed that the "Guaido project" was nothing but "an American chimera that neither has a future nor could it have one," "However, Washington has managed to convince its European partners. Some Latin American governments also played along, seeing in it an additional opportunity to receive, as they had thought at the time, political and, in some cases, economic dividends," he recounted.

Meanwhile, Melik-Bagdasarov noted, "history inexorably puts everything in its place". "So it is with this notorious project, and at the same time with the once-running Lima Group. And a lot of alien things that have been imposed on Latin Americans have been rejected in recent years," he added.

The political situation in Venezuela escalated after opposition leader Juan Guaido, whose appointment as speaker of parliament had been annulled by the Republican supreme court two days earlier, declared himself acting president on January 23, 2019.

He was recognized as interim head of state by the US, then joined by the countries of the Lima Group (except Mexico), the Organization of American States and most members of the EU. Maduro slammed this incident as a coup d’etat attempt and said he would sever diplomatic relations with the US. Russia, Belarus, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Syria and Turkey supported him.