Russia is one of numerous countries to back the upcoming Venezuelan electoral process this week following the visit of Tibisay Lucena, the president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council.

Her visit, which is a part of a tour to several African and European countries, looked to promote the strength of Venezuela's electoral system in the world following attacks from the US government and their allies.

Lucena was welcomed by Russia's vice foreign minister, Sergey Riabkov, who acknowledged that there is an international attack on Venezuela's democracy.

“We support the efforts of the Venezuelan electoral authorities and wish the people of Venezuela success and peace in the upcoming elections,” he said.

The Russian official also declared that Moscow will be sending a team of international observers for the May 20 presidential elections. The news came as Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza confirmed that the UN has rejected an offer to accompany the process. Arreaza said that the UN cited a lack of time to organise the mission as the apparent reason.

Similarly, Latin America’s Council of Electoral Experts (CEELA), which perennially sends observer missions to Venezuela, offered declarations reaffirming the transparent and fair nature of the country’s electoral process.

“There has never existed a difference between the digital votes and the manually counted votes. We have tested the process step by step so there can’t exist a single suspicion of fraud,” said CEELA President Nicanor Moscoso.

Venezuela's electoral system uses electronic voting machines but every vote also produces a paper ballot which is used to publically audit the electronic count at the close of voting in what is known as the citizen's audit.

CEELA, which brings together electoral technicians and authorities from across the continent, accompanies all off the twenty-plus audits of the voting system which are carried out before and after election day. They are also present for the vote itself.