The Russian Embassy in Guyana is awaiting a response from Moscow to a note verbale sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding the withdrawal of untrue statements that a British military base was being built on an Essequibo River island to train Venezuelan refugees to destabilise the Nicholas Maduro government.
Sources at the Embassy explained to Stabroek News yesterday that the first they heard of the claim was through media reports and that while they have forwarded the demand from Takuba Lodge there has been no response.
“His Excellency [Ambassador Alexander Kurmaz] is currently in the capital (Moscow) so we are awaiting his return and a possible response therefore we cannot at this time offer any comment on the matter,” Stabroek News was told.
Over a week ago, during a weekly press briefing that was broadcast live by Russia Today, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova said that “the British continue constructing a military base at the estuary of the Essequibo River.”
“They say it’s to fight the smuggling of drugs and arms,” she said, while adding that “several dozen of the so-called refugees from Venezuela have already arrived there. In fact, those are the people who have arrived to complete training for the recon and diversion groups in order to work in Venezuela and destabilise the situation and commit relevant actions from extremist to terrorist.”
Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry swiftly responded, saying that the statement was “baseless” and “utterly false.”
“It is especially unfortunate given that relations between Guyana and Russia have always been based on mutual respect, trust and friendship,” it said.
On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Carl Greenidge suggested that the baseless accusation might be linked to recent finds of petroleum deposits in Guyana’s sovereign territory.
“I think, what one has to give some thought to [is]… the ultimate purpose of this?” he said adding that “It can’t be to remove a base because there is no base to be removed and we would be rather foolish to be training Venezuelan terrorists in a country as small as this, next door to a neighbour that is so large. We would be rather foolish.”
Further, he added, “It is more likely to be the discovery of petroleum in [Guyana’s offshore territory] by the Chinese, Americans and now European companies. It probably has more to do with that than anything else but I am not able to attribute a reason.”
Greenidge explained that “the Russian representatives were called in and firmly told that the story, as they are well aware, is untrue and we asked them to make it right; to withdraw it” but so far only an acknowledgement of the note verbale has been received.
“There is no standard map of what happens to diplomatic relations. If they have said something which is obviously untrue and they repeat, we continue to tell the world that it is untrue,” he added.
