Russian MP warns Venezuela’s current chaos can impede defense cooperation with Moscow

MOSCOW, Jan 24, 2019, TASS. Instability in Venezuela will negatively affect defense cooperation with Russia as the country’s financial capacity will go down, Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Defense Committee Chairman Vladimir Shamanov told reporters on Thursday, reported the TASS News Agency.

“Instability in the country, which has long been our ally, will definitely limit their capabilities,” he said in response to a question. According to Shamanov, the situation will have a destabilizing effect “on all aspects of economic life in the first place.” “Accordingly, their financial capacity will drop,” the Russian lawmaker noted.

“Any instability – and we saw it happen in the last century – is always fraught with long-term consequences,” he went on to say. “Thank God, there are some sensible leaders – in Mexico, Bolivia and Cuba – who expressed support for the elected president [Nicolas Maduro],” he added. “But Americans have once again shown their true face and they will seek to achieve their goals by all means, they will stoop to anything,” Shamanov concluded.

On January 23, large-scale anti-government protests took place in Venezuela. In some of the country’s regions, opposition-led activities resulted in clashes between protesters and security forces, which led to casualties. According to the Pitazo news outlet, at least 16 protesters were killed.