Russia deepens its military cooperation with Venezuela: "We will do everything in our power to maintain the combat capability of armaments"

Russia wants to preserve the military cooperation it has had since 2005 with Venezuela, the largest importer of Russian arms in Latin America, said Wednesday the director of the Federal Service for Technical-Military Cooperation, Dmitri Shugavev .

"Our armament has proved itself. We will do our utmost to maintain its combat capability. That's our main goal"said the Russian official in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant.

Shugaev responded to the possibility that the president of the National Assembly and proclaimed president in charge of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, would like to review the technical-military cooperation with Russia.

The top Russian official said that Moscow is closely following the situation in Venezuela, because "The crisis is very very worrying", but stressed that "We do not have the intention to stop cooperating"with the oil country.

As he explained, since 2005, Russia has delivered to Venezuela:

-helicopter "Mi-35" and "Mi-17"
– Plane hunt "Su-30MK2"
small arms
– armored vehicles
-Air defense weapons, including "Antey-2500", "Buk-M2E" and "Igla MANPADS".

Shugaev added that these materials had been delivered "a long time ago" and that, therefore, "most recently, the cooperation covers the basic principles of repair and maintenance of the weapons"

Also in "help with the creation of military installations", as maintenance and overhaul centers of "Mi" type helicopters.

"In the future, we can talk about the establishment of fixed and mobile service centers for "after-sales service" and other types of equipment, and establishment of the construction of factories for the production of rifles; badault AK-103 and ammo for these"said the official.

(With EFE information)