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Kremlin denies Russian mercenaries in Venezuela
Summary
A look back at the denial by the Kremlin press secretary, reported on 28 January 2019, of claims that Russian fighters were guarding Nicolás Maduro.
Were Russian mercenaries really protecting Venezuela's president? On 29 January 2019, that question was still hanging over the country's crisis, a day after the Kremlin rejected the claim.
As reported on 28 January 2019, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, denied that any Russian mercenaries were present in Venezuela. His denial followed earlier reports that as many as 100 of them might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro.
The exchange belonged to the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, which also fed into United States–Venezuela relations. The episode was catalogued among developments that some scholars and journalists place under the label of a Second Cold War, a term used for heightened tensions between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have used such terms as a comparison to the original Cold War, while others have discouraged them.
The reports spoke of a figure of up to 100, and the Kremlin's response was a flat denial rather than a clarification of numbers or roles. No further details about the alleged deployment were given in the reports from that time.
