United States President, Donald Trump has called on Russia to pull out its troops from Venezuela.
“Russia has to get out,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office, where he met with Guaido’s wife, Fabiana Rosales.
“We’ll see. All options are open.” he answered when asked how he planned on making that happen.
This is coming after Russian air force believed to be carrying nearly 100 Russian Special forces and cyber security experts arrived outside Caracas
President Trump and most of the Western leaders support the opposition leader, Juan Guaido while Russia and China support President Maduro.
Russia’s Deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, posted on Twitter, “Russia has bilateral relations and agreements with Venezuela and Maduro that it plans to honour.”
The move is bound to escalate tensions in a country already divided after Juan Guaido announced himself as interim President in January.
Maduro who still maintains his hold over key state functions has said that Juan Guaido is a puppet of the US.
In a counter to Trump’s statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the United States should pull troops from Syria before telling Moscow to withdraw from Venezuela.