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Did Russian mercenaries reach Venezuela? The Kremlin's denial
Summary
A look back at the Kremlin's denial of reports that Russian contractors were guarding Nicolás Maduro.
Were Russian mercenaries guarding the Venezuelan president? On 31 January 2019, that question was still hanging over a widening crisis, three days after the Kremlin tried to close it.
On 28 January 2019, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov denied that Russian mercenaries were present in Venezuela. Earlier reports had suggested that up to 100 of them might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro. Peskov rejected that account.
The exchange was filed under several headings at the time: the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, United States–Venezuela relations, and the broader idea of a Second Cold War. That last label has been used by scholars and journalists to describe heightened tensions in the post–Cold War era, usually between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have used it as a comparison to the original Cold War, while others have discouraged its use for ongoing tensions.
The episode is a reminder of how a single denial can sit at the centre of a larger argument. The reports spoke of a figure of up to 100 people. The Kremlin's answer was a flat rejection. For readers in Kyiv and across the region, the exchange was one more example of Moscow's role being debated far from its borders.
