Did Russian mercenaries guard Maduro? Moscow's denial of January 2019
A look back at the Kremlin's denial, reported on 28 January 2019, of Russian mercenaries in Venezuela.
What was Moscow willing to say about Russian fighters in Venezuela? On 31 January 2019, the question was still open after a denial issued three days earlier, on 28 January 2019, during the crisis around Venezuela's presidency.
The Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, denied that Russian mercenaries were present in Venezuela. His denial followed earlier reports that as many as 100 such fighters might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro.
The episode was filed under several headings: the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, United States–Venezuela relations and the wider Second Cold War. That last term has been used by scholars and journalists to describe heightened geopolitical tensions in the post–Cold War era, usually between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have used it as a comparison to the original Cold War, while others have discouraged applying it to ongoing tensions.
The reported figure of up to 100 and the Kremlin's flat denial stood side by side. As of 31 January 2019, the denial was the Russian government's public position on the reports.
