Russian military planes in Venezuela raise suspicions

The media in Venezuela is claiming that two Russian air force planes at Venezuela’s main airport landed with a Russian defence official and nearly 100 troops.

The two planes left from a Russian military airport bound for Caracas on Friday, with one of them leaving Caracas on Sunday.

The report comes three months after the two nations held military exercises on Venezuelan soil that President Nicolas Maduro called a sign of strengthening relations, but which Washington criticized as Russian encroachment in the region.

According to Venezuelan reporter Javier Mayorca, the first plane carried Vasily Tonkoshkurov, chief of staff of the ground forces, adding that the second was a cargo plane carrying 35 tonnes of material.

Maduro on Wednesday said Russia would send medicine “next week” to Venezuela, without describing how it would arrive, adding that Moscow in February had sent some 300 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, an Ilyushin IL-62 passenger jet and an Antonov AN-124 military cargo plane left for Caracas on Friday from Russian military airport Chkalovsky, stopping along the way in Syria.

In December, two Russian strategic bomber aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons landed Venezuela in a show of support for Maduro’s government.

Via Euronews