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Did Russian mercenaries reach Venezuela? Moscow said no
Summary
A look back at the Kremlin's denial on 28 January 2019 of reports that Russian fighters were guarding Nicolás Maduro.
Were Russian mercenaries protecting the Venezuelan president? On 28 January 2019, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said they were not, denying their presence in Venezuela.
The denial followed earlier reports that up to 100 Russian mercenaries might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro. Moscow's answer was categorical, and it placed the Kremlin at the centre of a story that was already part of the wider crisis in Venezuela.
Why it mattered
The episode belonged to the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis and to the strained relations between the United States and Venezuela. Commentators and scholars have used the label Second Cold War, or New Cold War, for heightened tensions between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Others have discouraged the term. Venezuela was one place where those rivalries were discussed.
For readers in Ukraine and neighbouring states, the question was a familiar one: how far Russia relies on irregular fighters, and how readily Moscow disowns them. On 28 January 2019 the Kremlin's position was simple: no mercenaries were present in Venezuela, whatever the earlier reports had suggested.
