Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemns US operation in Venezuela

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday condemned the recent United States intervention in Venezuela as a "gross violation of international law." 

Speaking alongside his Namibian counterpart, Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, following a meeting in Moscow, Lavrov said his views were shared "by the overwhelming majority of states in the global South and East."

"Only Western Europeans and other Washington allies are timidly trying to avoid making principled assessments," Lavrov said.

Russia's top diplomat also accused Washington of abandoning the very principles it once promoted, saying that the US now appeared "unreliable."

Russia had previously described the US intervention in Venezuela as "an act of armed aggression." 

On January 3, US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in an attack that knocked out power in parts of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and struck military installations.

Both are being held in New York where they pleaded not guilty in court to narco-terrorism and other charges.