MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. A visit by Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira to Moscow is currently being discussed, and the top ministers of Russia and Brazil have been in touch on this issue, a senior Russian diplomat told reporters as the monument to Simon Bolivar was unveiled at a ceremony in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Our ministers have been in constant contact at various joint events, so this dialogue is ongoing, including regarding the invitation to visit Moscow that has been extended to Mauro Vieira," Alexander Shchetinin, the director of the Latin American Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said, when asked by a TASS reporter whether preparations are being made for Brazil’s top diplomat to visit Russia at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The monument to Bolivar was unveiled in southwestern Moscow to commemorate the 240th anniversary of the military commander’s birth. The sculpture is more than 4 meters high, and the location for it was found back in 2010, when a foundation stone was laid in a garden square in the presence of the then President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan government donated to Moscow a replica of the equestrian sculpture of Simon Bolivar by the Italian master Adamo Tadolini, which was erected in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.