by Staff Reporter
April 18, 2013 (TSR) – President Vladimir Putin congratulated newly elected president Nicolas Maduro by telephone on April 15 for winning the snap election in Venezuela.
Urging all parties to accept “the will of the voters”, Moscow, just like China, was one of the first world leaders outside Latin America who recognized and congratulated the Chávez heir.
“The Russian head of state expressed confidence that under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela will continue to strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia,” it said in a Kremlin statement.
Nicolas Maduro is the new president of Venezuela. He won the general election with 50,66% of votes. The information was released by the president of the country’s National Electoral Council Tibisay Lucena.
The opposition leader, Henrique Capriles ranked 2nd with 49,07% of Venezuelan votes in one of the most perfect voting systems in the world which former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and his foundation applauds.
Nevertheless, Capriles refused to concede defeat, did not accept the result and demanded a recount.
The U.S. White House said an audit was necessary.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that foreigners present in Venezuela in connection with the election, including Russian electoral officials, reported that it was conducted “without any serious violations of electoral law”.
“We call upon all political forces in friendly Venezuela to respect the will of the voters and show a balanced and responsible approach to the results of the voting,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russia and Venezuela have enjoyed close relations in the past decades, with Moscow selling Caracas large supplies of arms to Washington’s great unease.
Venezuela was also one of a handful of countries to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway regions of Georgia that Russia proclaimed independent after winning a brief 2008 war with the small ex-Soviet state.
The Kremlin statement said Putin hoped to “further develop a constructive dialogue (with Venezuela) on a full range of bilateral and international issues of interest to the two countries and their peoples.”
