Russia, Nicaragua stand against violence against Venezuela

MANAGUA, March 26. /TASS/. Russia and Nicaragua stand against any acts of violence against Venezuela and attempts at a state coup in that country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday after a meeting with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. "We express solidarity with Venezuela’s people and its legitimate leaders. We consider attempts at any acts of violence inadmissible, the more so any coups as a method of toppling legitimate governments. We are confident that internal political problems must be solved solely in the constitutional framework, without any interference from outside," Lavrov said. The United States has recently ramped up pressure on Venezuela and imposed sanctions on a number of Venezuelan citizens. Lavrov told Ortega prior to his trip to Nicaragua he had visited Colombia and met with that country’s leaders at the San Carlos Palace /the official residence of the president of Colombia - TASS/. At the main entrance, he said, there is a quote from Simon Bolivar, which reads that every state has the right to choose one or another political system, and the rest of nations ought to treat this choice with respect. Russia and Nicaragua "commend the beginning of the process of normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States and are confident that this process should rely on equality and reckoning with each other’s interests, without any unilateral pressure," Lavrov said. "It is necessary to put an end to the process of financial and economic blockade of Cuba," the Russian foreign minister underscored. Read more