Russian Foreign Ministry on Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (MZ below) called conditions in Idlib province's so-called deescalation zone violent.

US-supported jihadists continue using territory they control as a platform for launching terrorist attacks on government forces and civilians - using heavy weapons supplied by the US, other NATO countries, and Israel.

MZ: "Over 350 shelling attacks were registered in March, which is twice more than in February" - because Turkey's Erdogan betrayed Putin, breaching what they both agreed on, supporting jihadists instead of combatting them.

Idlib terrorists hold tens of thousands of Syrian civilians hostage as human shields, encouraged by the US to use them. They're terrorized, brutalize, suffering greatly, and dying.

MZ: "(T)errorists in Idlib continue planning provocations involving chemical agents. On March 29, (Russia's reconciliation center) released a detailed commentary on" what's going on.

The US, UK, France, and their imperial partners are involved in staging violent incidents. They're selecting victims to videotape ahead of planned CW attacks to be wrongfully blamed on Damascus like earlier - a pretext for greater Pentagon-led terror-bombing of Syrian targets.

Along with over 40,000 Syrian refugees held hostage by US forces at the isolated Rukban refugee camp, preventing aid from reaching them, most denied permission to leave, a high crime against humanity by any standard, conditions are just as appalling at another camp in al-Hawl, Hasakah province.

MZ: "The camp is overcrowded, with a total of 73,000 people" - nearly half from US-raped and destroyed Mosul, Iraq, US forces holding them captive, denying them freedom.

According to the UN, al-Hawl has severe shortages of food and clean water, along with appalling sanitation conditions and practically no medical care for refugees needing it.

MZ: "This leads to the spread of infectious diseases and aggravates the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the camp."

The international community and UN are doing nothing to help. The US control the camp, terrorizing its residents instead of helping them.

Commenting on Venezuela, MZ  stressed there's consensus among Latin and Central American countries against US use of military force in the country, adding:

There's "no alternative to a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis in Venezuela, and support the right of the people of that country to decide their future themselves."

"As for relations between Russia and Venezuela, they are (entirely legal and) dynamic, despite various planted and fabricated news items and other speculation."

"(T)here  is no alternative to a peaceful approach to resolving the crisis in Venezuela, and support the right of the people of that country to decide their future themselves."

Russia is prepared to help facilitate dialogue and other efforts toward resolving things according to the rule of law - prohibiting nations from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, what the US does repeatedly worldwide.

Mutual cooperation between both countries continues. US calls for Russian personnel to leave Venezuela were rejected.

In Moscow, Russian and Venezuelan officials are discussing deepening bilateral ties. Most important, they're devising ways of countering illegal US sanctions war, wanting the Bolivarian Republic isolated, its economy crushed, its people immiserated while pretending concern for their welfare.

According to Venezuela's Vice President and Minister of Planning Ricardo Menendez, "(a)long with President Nicolas Maduro and Vice President of the Economic Sector Tareck Aissami, we've been working and distributing a scheme as part of the reorganization of the productive and economic system of Venezuela."

"This includes the reorganization of the countries from which we import supplies. This means that we will change our suppliers from the international markets."

Both countries are working on ways to increase Venezuelan oil exports, imports of food and medicines, along with protecting the nation's electrical grid and other infrastructure from further US sabotage.

MZ: "Cooperation between our countries continues to develop as expected. It has good prospects."

On April 21, US-anointed Ukrainian president Poroshenko will meet key challenger comedian/entertainer Vladimir Zelensky in a runoff election - the country's process farcical with no legitimacy.

Fantasy democracy exists, not the real thing, US dirty hands controlling the country, using it as a dagger pointed at Russia's heartland.

Both countries share a 1,500-long km land and sea border. Poroshenko is overwhelmingly reviled for massive corruption, war on Donbass, wrecking Ukraine's economy, and exploiting its people, brutalizing resisters.

Massive irregularities were reported during March 31 round one voting, according to monitors.

MZ: According to a report by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR), "the first round reveal(ed) gross abuse of the administrative resource, bribery and pressure on voters, illegal campaigning, manipulation of voter lists (phantom voters), biased media coverage, irregularities in the work of commissions, and so on."

"(T)he Central Election Commission of Ukraine (refused) accredit Russian observers, which is contrary to Kiev's international obligations. The polling stations at Ukrainian foreign representative offices in Russia were closed, depriving about three million Ukrainian citizens in our country of their right to vote."

Ukrainian citizens in Donbass were disenfranchised. Final electoral results will lack legitimacy.

Ukraine is a Nazi-infested police state, democracy the way it should be prohibited. Whatever the runoff outcome on April 21, ordinary Ukrainians will lose - totalitarian rule running things, US dirty hands in charge behind the scenes.

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