Home › Opinion › Did Russian mercenaries reach Venezuela by 28 January 2019?
Did Russian mercenaries reach Venezuela by 28 January 2019?
Summary
A Kremlin denial on 28 January 2019 addressed reports that up to 100 Russian mercenaries had been sent to protect Nicolás Maduro.
Were Russian mercenaries guarding Venezuela's president? On 28 January 2019, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said they were not.
The denial answered earlier reports that up to 100 Russian mercenaries might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro. Peskov rejected the idea that any such presence existed in Venezuela.
The exchange took place as the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis was straining relations between the United States and Venezuela. The episode was also placed within the framing of a Second Cold War, a term that scholars and journalists have used for heightened tensions between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have used the label as a comparison to the original Cold War, while others have discouraged it.
For readers in Kyiv and across the region, the point was the contest over information as much as the number involved. A specific figure of up to 100 had entered circulation, and Moscow's spokesman answered it with a flat denial of any deployment.
