The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday released a statement wishing success to Venezuela’s acting president, after the US military removed its Kremlin-friendly dictator, Nicolas Maduro, but, without a shred of irony, called for “respect for international legal norms, primarily the UN Charter.”
“We welcome the efforts undertaken by the official authorities of this country to protect state sovereignty and national interests,” the Ministry’s statement reads.
“We reaffirm Russia’s unwavering solidarity with the Venezuelan people and Government. We wish success to the authorized President [Delcy] Rodriguez in resolving the tasks facing the Bolivarian Republic. For our part, we express our readiness to continue providing the necessary support to our friendly Venezuela.”
Moscow is in a delicate position after the American coup in Caracas. On the one hand, the Kremlin has lost a trusted ally in South America, while on the other, it has encountered a less-than-adversarial relationship with US President Trump when it comes to negotiating an end to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has been somewhat careful not to tip the apple cart there.
Also, the future of Russia’s energy holdings in Venezuela, which boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, appears to be in Trump’s hands now.
In November, for example, Venezuela’s National Assembly had approved a 15-year extension of the joint ventures between state-owned energy company PDVSA and Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, which specializes in oil exploration outside of he Russian Federation. The joint ventures operate the Boqueron and Perija oilfields in the western part of Venezuela, for which the government had set a goal of producing some 91 million barrels by 2041.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on Tuesday was measured, in so far as it did not echo the words of the country’s UN ambassador, who on Monday called on the US to release Maduro and his wife, without delay.
Addressing a UN Security Council meeting, Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the international body, said, “In light of the confirmed information regarding the presence of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in the United States and, as we know, specifically in New York from today, we urge the American leadership to release the president of an independent country and his wife immediately.”
The language out of Smolenskaya Square was slightly more couched on Tuesday.
“Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive external interference,” the Foreign Ministry’s statement continued.
“We consistently advocate for de-escalation of the current situation and the resolution of any existing problems through constructive dialogue and respect for international legal norms, primarily the UN Charter,” the statement concluded.
A week after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UN passed General Assembly Resolution ES-11/1 by a vote of 141-5, that “deplores in the strongest terms” the aggression by Russia and affirmed the international community’s “commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Only Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria opposed the resolution.
Just last month, the head of the UN’s Human Rights Committee warned of shrinking freedoms in the parts of Ukraine now under Russian control.
“The plight of civilians has become even more unbearable,” Volker Turk said, as he presented a report on conditions in occupied Ukraine over the past five months. “As peace negotiations continue, our monitoring and reporting show that the war is intensifying, causing more death, damage, and destruction.”