The US is projecting its own plans against Venezuela on Moscow, surmising about “military contingents” and “operations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, adding that Russian specialists have clear and open goals in the country.

“It looks like Washington is judging by itself, trying to ascribe its own plans it has against this country to Moscow. Yet again, they arrogantly announce they have ‘all option on the table,’” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Saturday. She added that Russian specialists in Venezuela are not “military contingent” which Moscow made clear from the very beginning.

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The US’ unsubstantiated alarm over an imaginary Russian “military contingent” deployed to Venezuela is an example of the utmost hypocrisy, given its own activities in South America.

“It would be nice to know, what the numerous American military instructors are doing in Venezuela’s neighbor – Columbia?” Zakharova wondered. “And why is the White House eagerly calling its other neighbor – Brazil – to NATO, in violation of the charter and very name of the North Atlantic treaty?”

Moscow insists the arrival of 100 Russian military specialists to Venezuela last week is part of the military cooperation agreed between the two countries in 2001, and was carried out “in strict accordance with the constitution of that country and with full respect for its legal norms.” But Washington got all worked up with harsh statements.

National Security Advisor John Bolton said the “United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere’s shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law,” while Vice President Mike Pence called the deployment an “unnecessary provocation.” President Donald Trump urged Russia to get out of Venezuela, invoking the old “all options are open” threat.

Angry reaction and “nervousness” of Washington is perfectly understandable, Zakharova explained, since the US has seen its plans of rapid regime change in Venezuela fail and now it has to deal with the consequences of it.

“With its self-confidence, Washington only ‘set up’ those in Latin America and Western Europe who hastily hurried to recognize an unelected impostor as the head of Venezuela. Thus, they deprived themselves of space for diplomatic manoeuvres,” Zakharova said.

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The rhetoric about Russia ‘invading’ the Western hemisphere, supposed to be Washington’s backyard – aside from belonging straight to the colonial era – is not even factually accurate, Zakharova noted in a quite ironic remark.

“I would like to draw the attention of Washington politicians to a geographical map. Part of the territory of the Russian Federation – the Chukotka Peninsula – is located right in the Western Hemisphere. So for Russia, the American continent is a close neighbor,” the spokeswoman said.

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