Russia warns US for making calls to Venezuelan army to drop support for Maduro

A senior Russian diplomat says Venezuela hasn't asked Russia for military assistance amid the South American country's political crisis. Alexander Shchetinin, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Latin America department, said Monday that Moscow hasn't received any such request from Caracas, according to Russian news reports.

Asked to compare the situation in Venezuela to Syria, where Russia has waged a military campaign to shore up President Bashar Assad's government, Shchetinin said: "there is a big difference" between Syria and Venezuela but wouldn't elaborate. At the same time, the Russian diplomat strongly warned the US against making calls on the Venezuelan military to drop support for President Nicolas Maduro, saying it represented "unthinkable meddling into foreign affairs of a sovereign nation."