RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin did not discuss military or financial support for Venezuela in a recent phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Kremlin’s spokesman said on Friday.

Maduro’s presidency has been called into question amid mass protests as the impoverished South American state’s oil-based economy has come to the verge of collapse.

The United States has recognized Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.

Maduro responded by breaking off diplomatic relations with the U.S.

Putin “expressed support for the legitimate Venezuelan authorities amid the worsening of the internal political crisis provoked from outside the country,’’ the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday.

The “destructive external interference is a gross violation of the fundamental norms of international law,’’ the statement said, citing Putin.

In December, Putin met with Maduro in Moscow and expressed a similar message of support.

Russia, whose economy has also struggled with an oil-price plummet in recent years, signed a deal in 2018 to restructure more than 3.15 billion dollars of Venezuelan debt to avoid default.

Russian state oil giant Rosneft closely collaborates with its Venezuelan counterpart, Petroleos de Venezuela, on extraction in South America. (Dpa/NAN)

– Jan. 25, 2019 @ 14:09 GMT |