The photo taken on Feb. 28, 2019 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a Russia-drafted resolution on Venezuela at the UN headquarters in New York. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
MOSCOW, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian troops will stay in Venezuela as long as the legitimate Venezuelan government needs them, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
"All this is done in accordance with bilateral agreements," Zakharova told a press briefing.
Two Russian air force planes landed in Venezuela on Saturday, carrying nearly 100 troops and 35 tons of materials, said media reports.
Zakharova noted that the Russian troops' presence in Venezuela is in line with the bilateral agreement on military-technical cooperation. Mentioning the remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday that Russia has to pull out of the South American country, she said the Russian move violates neither international rules nor the Venezuelan law.
"Russia does not change the balance of forces in the region. Russia does not threaten anyone, unlike people in Washington, the statement of whom I just quoted," she added.
At the same time, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman noted that the world has seen a series of actions by Washington trying to intervene in the situation in Venezuela, including imposing sanctions, splitting the society and the armed forces, attempting to force an entry of humanitarian aid, among others.
"All these are a deliberate provocation for chaos, the collapse of the state, as a result of which there may simply be no winners," Zakharova said.
Venezuela has suffered a political crisis since late January when the opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the country's interim president and was recognized by the United States and some other countries.