Vladimir Putin has congratulated Nicolás Maduro on his victory in Sunday’s presidential election, a result widely seen as rigged.
The autocrat won 51 per cent of the vote, according to official results, despite for months trailing his opponent Edmund González by up to 40 points in the polls.
Even as ballots continued to be counted early on Monday, reports flooded in of widespread irregularities and intimidating behaviour by Maduro supporters.
Some polling stations reportedly failed to open and election observers were barred from entering others. There were also attacks, including several shootings, on members of the Unitarian Democratic Platform, the opposition alliance, by “colectivos”, pro-Maduro gangs that ride around on motorcycles.
As the United States, EU and several countries in Latin America expressed serious concerns over the legitimacy of the result, Putin came out to praise his longtime ally.
“I am confident that your activities as the head of state will continue to contribute to [Russian-Venezuelan relations’] progressive development in all directions,” the Russian president said in a message to Mr Maduro released by the Kremlin.
“I would like to confirm our readiness to continue our constructive joint work on topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda. Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil.”
Venezuela is one of Russia’s few remaining international friends, and a key partner in Latin America. The two sanctioned states have over the past two decades co-operated in areas such as oil, weapons and military drills.
Mr Maduro has echoed the Kremlin’s line that the war in Ukraine was provoked by the US and the West.
Last month, a Russian frigate thought to be carrying hypersonic missiles docked at a Venezuelan port, days after it manoeuvred within striking distance of Miami.
Mr González, a 74-year-old moderate, on Monday said his campaign had proof that he won the country’s election.
Mr González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told supporters gathered outside his campaign headquarters that they have obtained more than 70 per cent of tally sheets from Sunday’s dispute election, and they showed Mr González ahead of Mr Maduro.
“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” Mr González said. “The will expressed yesterday through your vote will be respected… We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our victory.”
Both Mr Maduro and his rival Mr Gonzalez each claimed victory in the election on Monday morning.
One exit poll, by Edison Research, which surveyed voters at 100 polling stations, gave Mr González 65 per cent of the vote. Mr Maduro won just 31 per cent, according to the US polling company. Rob Farbman, Edison’s executive vice-president, dismissed the official preliminary results as “silly”.
Mr González agreed: “Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened.”
He added: “Our message of reconciliation and peaceful change still stands...our struggle continues and we won’t rest until the will of the people of Venezuela is respected.”
Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, warned that the “result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.
Gabriel Boric, Chile’s millennial, Leftist president, added that it was “difficult to believe”, stressing that his government “would not recognise any result that is not verifiable”.
Uruguay’s Luis Lacalle Pou said it was an “open secret” that Mr Maduro had decided he would win re-election “regardless of the actual results”.
The condemnation came after Washington briefly suspended sanctions against Venezuela on the back of receiving assurances that it would hold free and fair elections.
But the Biden administration was soon forced to reimpose them after the repeated arrest and harassment of opposition figures.
Mr González, a retired diplomat, went from being virtually unknown to a household name after opposition leader María Corina Machado was barred from running in the election by the Maduro-controlled supreme court.
The opposition coalition, the Unitarian Democratic Platform, selected him in April as a last-minute stand-in for Ms Machado.
“A phrase that has been said to me repeatedly is ‘You are my last hope,’” Mr González said of his supporters on Thursday.
“I want to tell you that you are the hope. You have filled me with strength to face what has undoubtedly been the most unequal electoral campaign in the history of electoral processes in Venezuela.”
For over a quarter of a century, first under Hugo Chávez and now Mr Maduro, Venezuela has suffered deep and sustained economic collapse, including widespread hunger, prompting one in four citizens to flee the country.
But Ms Corina Machado, a 56-year-old industrial engineer, has given a new generation of Venezuelans hope of a brighter future as she campaigns against rampant corruption and political repression.
A tense calm blanketed Venezuela’s capital early on Monday, with businesses shuttered, bus stops empty and traffic nonexistent.
Eating breakfast on a bench next to an unopened store, 28-year-old Deyvid Cadenas, a first-time voter on Sunday, said he felt cheated.
“The majority voted for the opposition,” added Mr Cadenas. “I don’t believe yesterday’s results.”
