Bolton Lies That Venezuela’s Maduro ‘Bought’ Russian Support Via Nonexistent Military Contract

June 17, 2019 (EIRNS)—The delusional U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton can’t let go of his obsession that Russia is “propping up” the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Over the June 15-16 weekend, Bolton tweeted that Maduro had “mismanaged” the nation’s money, and had paid $209 million to Russia under the terms of a defense contract in order to “buy” Moscow’s “continued support,” Sputnik reported.

Just one slight problem here—the military-technical cooperation agreement that Russia signed with Venezuela occurred in 2001, under the government of the late Hugo Chavez. The recent deployment of Russian military to Venezuela is stipulated by that 2001 contract, and it is a very short-term deployment.

Russian Ambassador in Caracas Vladimir Zaemsky dismissed Bolton’s ravings about a “new” Russian-Venezuelan defense contract. “This is just another made-up story that Bolton, apparently, needs to sustain the illusion that Venezuela poses a fake threat for which, ‘of course’ Russia is responsible. Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly indicated just days ago that we haven’t signed any new contracts lately” with Venezuela, he said.