Russia, Venezuela foreign ministers meet

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza on Sunday.

That the two would meet is not surprising — Russia, after all, is economically invested in Venezuela and is standing behind President Nicolás Maduro, who managed to remain in power last week after opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s attempt to stir a military uprising has yet to be successful. Guaidó declared himself interim president of Venezuela in January and is recognized as the country’s legitimate leader by several nations, including the United States.

But the timing of the Lavrov-Arreaza meeting is, if not surprising, at least conspicuous. On Friday, two days before the foreign ministers met, President Donald Trump said during a news conference with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone.

“I had a very good talk with President Putin — probably over an hour,” Trump said. “And we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. And he is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement on its Facebook page that Trump, not Putin, had initiated the call and that the two spoke for 90 minutes, not an hour.

The statement said Putin “underscored that only the Venezuelans themselves have the right to determine the future of their country, whereas outside interference in the country’s internal affairs and attempts to change the government in Caracas by force undermine prospects for a political settlement of the crisis.”

It was a message Lavrov “underscored” when sitting down with Arreaza on Sunday. Ahead of his meeting, Lavrov said the United States should halt what he called its “irresponsible” campaign to overthrow Maduro.