Grigory Yavlinsky’s Telegram channel, 24.01.2019

On 23 January, Juan Guaido, leader of the Venezuelan opposition parliament, declared himself acting President of the country. This happened in Caracas during a demonstration when many thousands people protested against President Nicolás Maduro, and a disastrous economic situation developed in Venezuela during his presidency.

The Russian Foreign Ministry today declared Maduro’s legitimacy, and Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s Press Secretary, called the developments in Venezuela “an attempt to usurp supreme power.”

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko Party, commented on the situation in his Telegram Channel as follows:

“Brotherly” Bashar al-Assad defended. Now we will be defending the sovereignty of “brotherly” Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela is “our strategic partner,” the Foreign Ministry said. But for Putin, not Venezuela is a partner, but Nicolás Maduro. But only the people can be a strategic partner of Russia. And the people, apparently, want to shove Maduro out.

As for the sovereignty, it would be good to think about our own sovereignty: the poor quality and small size of the Russian economy, the dependence of the rouble on the dollar, the budget, which is completely dependent on New York and London oil prices, on Rusal, which is now fully controlled by the US Treasury, poverty of the majority of the population in Russia… We must deal with our country, not Maduro!