Russia slams US pressure on Venezuela’s top brass to defect as ‘unprecedented meddling’

© AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Moscow has castigated Washington’s drive to push the Venezuelan military into swtiching their oath of allegiance as blatant interference in Venezuela’s affairs, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin American Department Alexander Shchetinin said on Monday.

"As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said once, ‘the Mueller commission [the commission of US Special Counsel Robert Mueller probing Russia’s alleged meddling in the US presidential elections] is simply nothing compared to that," the diplomat stressed.

"This is because the direct appeal by a foreign state to the armed forces of another country, no matter what form it may take, for the purpose of altering the position and the oath of allegiance, is plainly unimaginable meddling in the internal affairs of a foreign state," he stressed.

"Our American partners are not thinking along these lines now. They are contemplating only [about the interference] as it applies to themselves," the Russian diplomat added.

When asked about any contacts being planned with Venezuela, the diplomat answered: "We constantly maintain contacts with the Venezuelan authorities in a normal, working regime."

The Reuters news agency earlier reported, citing a US White House spokesperson that Washington was maintaining contacts with some Venezuelan military officers in order to overthrow the incumbent authorities in Caracas and prepare new sanctions.

tass.com