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On June 2nd, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian personnel was leaving Venezuela, citing an anonymous source close to the Russian defense ministry.
Curiously, WSJ showed that it had no idea what Rostec is, calling it a defense contractor. According to the report, 1,000 of its personnel had dwindled down to a few dozens, because Russia had realized Caracas had no funds to pay the Russian state-owned holding conglomerate.
HINT: Russia’s Rostec specializes in consolidating strategically important companies, mostly by assisting in the development, production and export of high-tech and military hardware, with the aim of capitalizing them and bringing them to an initial public offering.
On the following day, Interfax reported a statement by Rostec denying the WSJ report.
“The composition of the representation has remained unchanged for many years. As for technical specialists, they periodically arrive in the country to repair and maintain the previously supplied equipment. Recently, for example, the technical work on servicing the aircraft batch was completed,” Interfax was told.
Furthermore, the numbers provided by WSJ were exaggerated “dozens of times.”
“The figures cited in the article of The Wall Street Journal regarding the presence of Rostec’s staff in Venezuela are exaggerated dozens of times,” Rostec said.
At the same time, Rosoboronexport, against the background of reports from Western media about a reduction in the staff of Venezuela’s Russian specialists, announced plans to deepen military-technical cooperation with Caracas.
Rosoboronexport and other Russian organizations participating in the Russian-Venezuelan military-technical cooperation remain committed to deepening cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and other Venezuelan government departments, the company’s press service said.
They noted that special attention was paid to “the implementation of agreements on the creation of defense enterprises in Venezuela, as well as the training of specialists and the timely maintenance of previously supplied equipment.”
On June 3rd, US President Donald Trump tweeted that “Russia had informed” the US that it has removed most of its people from Venezuela.
Russia has informed us that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2019
But, Rostec’s statement refutes his claims, as well.
The Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that all questions regarding the rumors should be pointed towards Rostec.
Military and technical cooperation between Russia and Venezuela has been on-going for years, even before the US decided to pursue regime change in the Latin American country.
Cooperation between Venezuela and China also continues, despite US discontent of that, too. On May 27th, Venezuela received 69 tons of medicine from China, in addition to approximately 200 tons sent in the past. The first similar shipment was sent on March 29, consisting of 65 tons of medicine – while this delivery was mislabeled as ‘military’ support to the Government of the Bolivarian Republic. On May 13 and 16, respectively 71 and 64 more tons were sent.
#HOY | Arriba a Venezuela la cuarta entrega de Asistencia Técnica Humanitaria, con 269 Toneladas de medicamentos y material médico quirúrgico, gracias a los acuerdos de cooperación establecidos entre la República Popular China y el Gobierno Bolivariano.#VenezuelaLuchayTrabaja pic.twitter.com/CzSceB9L4f
— Cancillería Venezuela ?? (@CancilleriaVE) May 27, 2019
Separately, it appeared that the talks between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and US-Proclaimed Interim President Juan Guaido’s opposition in Norway went well and that Guaido appears to be losing even more steam than before.
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Since the oil price is doping like crazy and Venezuelan oil is one of the lowest quality, there is no profit on being there.
Don’t confuse heavy sour with low quality
MSM Just fake as Trump himself.
Even more fake, because they were peddling their fake crap long before Trump did.
Fake squared