Russian Ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov

Russia's Ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, told Sputnik that the military-technical cooperation between Moscow and Caracas is a stabilizing factor against the backdrop of pressure from the US and NATO on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.

Melik-Bagdasarov affirmed that Russian specialists in Caracas are successfully cooperating with the Venezuelan Army, "contributing to maintaining the combat readiness of the country's armed forces at a high level."

The Russian diplomat expressed his hope that the further strengthening of the military and military-technical cooperation between Moscow and Caracas will cool Washington's eagerness regarding the preparation of new armed aggression against the sovereignty and independence of Venezuela.

Commenting on the mutual interests of Moscow and Caracas in the field of military-technical cooperation, the Russian Ambassador noted that they are limited to the laws and international obligations of Venezuela.

"It is a harmonious combination of needs and opportunities," Melik-Bagdasarov added.

A history of cooperation

Cooperation between Russia and Latin America goes back to before the Cold War with the West, when the Soviet Union allied with several states in the continent, mainly Cuba, and utilized its alliance to get at Washington.

The Soviet-Cuban alliance led to what is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia had previously said escalating tensions over Ukraine could lead to a reoccurrence of the Cuban missile crisis, which took place in 1962 and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Moscow sees that the West is utilizing rising tensions between Kiev and Moscow to deploy arms on the Russian borders.

The West is accusing Russia of planning an invasion of its western neighbor despite Moscow dismissing these allegations.

Russia insists that it has no intention of attacking any country, seeing the Western accusations as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment close to Russia's borders.

A history of cooperation

Read more: Russia has growing list of Latin American friends: Lavrov