Russia calls for Maduro release; denies housing Rodriguez

Rus­sia has de­nied Venezue­lan vice pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez is in its coun­try while call­ing on the Unit­ed States to re­lease pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro and his wife, Cil­ia.

"In light of con­firmed re­ports that Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro and his wife are in the Unit­ed States, we strong­ly urge the US lead­er­ship to re­con­sid­er its po­si­tion and re­lease the legal­ly elect­ed pres­i­dent of a sov­er­eign state and his wife," the Russ­ian For­eign Min­istry said.

For­eign Min­is­ter Sergei Lavrov said he ex­pressed "strong sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Venezue­lan peo­ple fac­ing armed ag­gres­sion" dur­ing a tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion with Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez, its min­istry said.

The min­istry al­so said that in­for­ma­tion that Ro­driguez was in Rus­sia was "false", the Tass news agency re­port­ed, ac­cord­ing to Reuters.