Delcy Rodríguez is sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president in Caracas, Venezuela, 5 January 2026. Photo: EPA / Miraflores Palace
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement of support for Venezuela’s newly-appointed interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and for Venezuela's efforts to “maintain state sovereignty” following the unprecedented military action taken by the United States to remove the country’s former president Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
Russia, the ministry’s statement said, favoured “the de-escalation of the current situation and the solution of any existing problems through constructive dialogue and respect for international legal norms, primarily the UN Charter”. The Foreign Ministry also expressed its readiness to “provide the necessary support to our friend Venezuela”.
Following the abduction of Maduro, who, along with his wife Cilia Flores, was indicted in a New York court on multiple charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine on Monday, Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president, was sworn in as the country’s new president at the country’s National Assembly.
Delcy’s assumption of the presidency demonstrated “the Bolivarian government’s determination to ensure unity and preserve the power vertical”, the Foreign Ministry said, “to stop the risks of a constitutional crisis” amid what it called “flagrant neo-colonial threats and armed aggression from foreign powers”.
“Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive intervention from the outside,” the Foreign Ministry statement continued, adding that “Latin America and the Caribbean must remain a zone of peace” in which the sovereign development of the region’s countries could be guaranteed.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday had sharply condemned the US military incursion into Venezuela, and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting, describing Maduro’s capture as an “act of armed aggression”, and demanding his release.
