CARACAS, December 2. /Corr. Mikhail Makeev/. Media reports about the deteriorating situation in Venezuela and the evacuation of Russian citizens from the country are completely false. Russian Ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic Sergei Melik-Bagdasarov told reporters about this.
“In the current situation, it is impossible to talk about any evacuation flights, much less the evacuation of Russian citizens from Venezuela,” the ambassador said.
The Russian Embassy in Venezuela, which faces a number of important tasks, including expanding bilateral economic and trade relations, has not evacuated and has no intention of doing so, the Russian diplomat said. “We will continue to interact with our strategic partners, with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, with the Venezuelan people for the sake of the prosperity of our country,” he emphasized.
The Ambassador noted that all Venezuelan airline companies and some foreign companies in the region continue to fly to Venezuela. “The statements of even the most influential world leaders on social networks and media have no legal basis, since the International Civil Aviation Organization does not impose any restrictions on Venezuela, therefore all responsible airlines continue flights to this country,” the Russian ambassador explained. He noted that “one of the Russian travel agencies rerouted the flow of tourists from Venezuela to Cuba and, unfortunately, the tourists found out about this at the last minute,” and said that Russian tourists staying on Margarita Island will return to their homeland in the near future, as planned.
Melik-Bagdasarov noted: “On December 1, I returned to Venezuela after more than a week in Moscow, where I participated in the 19th meeting of the High Level Intergovernmental Committee of Russia-Venezuela, during which more than a dozen documents were adopted on the further development of strategic relations with Venezuela.” He said that “amid the excitement in the Russian media” he would return to Caracas on a flight by the Venezuelan state company Conviasa from St. Petersburg. The plane was filled with Russian tourists, some of whom were going to Cuba and the rest to Venezuela.
About the information war
The Russian diplomat emphasized that the situation in the Venezuelan capital is completely calm and has not changed for the worse. He pointed out that “a real information war is currently going on against Venezuela and Russia, and unfortunately the majority of Russian media quotes misleading statements from various Western sources, including those considered authoritative, and repeats outright lies.” At the same time, the ambassador noted that “the media that disseminates false information from other sources must be held responsible.”
