The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, arrives in Russia to participate in the BRICS Summit

( Spanish) – The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, arrived this Tuesday in Kazan, Russia, where he will participate in the 16th BRICS Summit, reported the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, on his Telegram account.

Maduro landed in Kazan around 9:00 pm local time. Accompanied by Gil, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the first lady, Cilia Flores, and other officials, he was received by Russian personnel and a group of journalists, according to the transmission broadcast on the president’s YouTube account.

Before the press, the president considered his trip to the BRICS Summit “historic” — a group of countries initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which have been joined by Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia—and said that his objective at the meeting is to talk about “Venezuela’s struggle” and “a world without colonialisms, without hegemonisms, without imperialisms.”

This BRICS Summit will be held from October 22 to 24. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Telegram account that delegations from 36 countries, including 22 heads of state, are expected to attend.

The institution has released photos of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, with the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as with the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, among other dignitaries.

Maduro — who does not usually travel internationally — attends the meeting in Russia while the post-electoral conflict continues in Venezuela over the presidential elections of July 28, in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared him the winner over the majority candidate. opposition, Edmundo González, in the midst of allegations of fraud and without a detail of votes by center and voting stations being known to date.

Since the CNE gave the results, Maduro’s allies such as the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia itself supported the president, although a part of the international community questions his victory and seeks to publish the electoral records broken down by voting station.