Did Russian mercenaries reach Venezuela? Kremlin's denial on 28 January 2019
A look back at the Kremlin press secretary's rejection of reports about Russian fighters protecting Nicolás Maduro.
Were Russian mercenaries guarding the Venezuelan president? On 28 January 2019, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said they were not, denying that any such fighters were present in Venezuela.
The denial followed earlier reports that up to 100 Russian mercenaries might have been deployed to protect President Nicolás Maduro. Peskov rejected those accounts outright, leaving the Kremlin's public position on the day that no Russian mercenaries were in the country.
The exchange was logged under several headings: the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, United States–Venezuela relations, the wider crisis in Venezuela and the framing of a Second Cold War. That last term has been used by scholars and journalists to describe heightened geopolitical tensions in the 21st century, usually between the United States and NATO on one side and Russia or China on the other. Some commentators have embraced the comparison with the original Cold War, while others have discouraged it.
The Kremlin's statement on 28 January 2019 addressed only the question of mercenaries. It did not, as reported at the time, change the picture of a Venezuelan crisis that was already drawing in outside powers.
