Putin says U.S. military intervention in Venezuela would be a disaster

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that U.S. military intervention in Venezuela would be a disaster and said even Washington's allies did not support such a course of action.

Speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin also said that Russian technical specialists remained in Venezuela in order to service Russian military hardware, something he said they were contractually obliged to do.

However, he said Moscow was not setting up any special military bases in Venezuela, a close Russian ally. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in St Petersburg and by Maria Kiselyova and Christian Lowe in Moscow