MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has warned against using force to change the regime in Venezuela and called for unfreezing Venezuelan assets in the West.
"Now it is obvious, that the goal of Washington has not been and is not to solve the problems of Venezuela and take care of its people, but to change the regime, including threats to do this by means of a military intervention," Nebenzya said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
"We would like to warn against any reckless steps to implement military scenario in Venezuela, about which we come to hear more and more often. They might entail the most severe and unpredictable consequences for the region and the entire world," he said.
Nebenzya described the attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela on February 23 as "a humanitarian show" of Washington.
"Instead of hypocritically attempting to deliver "assistance" worth $20 mln, unblock the accounts of Venezuelan state companies in American banks worth $11bln, that the government allocated to buy medicines, food and essential goods," Nebenzya said.
"What will you say about the PDVSA assets worth $7 bln? What about Venezuelan gold assets in the UK worth $1.2 bln?" he said.
"Washington and London have recently robbed the people of Venezuela of $30 bln worth of oil and banking assets. Let us call things by their real name. Right in front of us, a sovereign country is being brazenly robbed and pushed towards beggary. This is done in order to change the unwanted regime," Nebenzya said.
"The fact that since 2013 Venezuela has been under American sanctions that largely caused the current economic situation is hushed up. Not a word is uttered about the overall damage to the economy of the country caused by the sanctions, which accounts for $345 bln," he said.