Venezuelan President Maduro greets Russian delegation to ALBA Games

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has greeted the Russian delegation at the opening ceremony of the Fifth Games of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), reported TASS news agency. "I welcome athletes and sportsmen from brotherly Russia," said the Venezuelan president at the ceremony, which was hosted at the Garcia Carneiro stadium in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira. To kickstart the event, Deputy Sports Minister Alexey Morozov led the Russian athletes who marched across the stadium. Thousands of Venezuelans welcomed the Russian athletes with a huge round of applause, reported TASS News Agency.  

The opening ceremony has also been attended by the Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin and Russian Ambassador to Caracas Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov as guests of honour. The Fifth Games of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) consist of 35 sports competitions. Around 3,500 athletes from 11 countries would be participating in the tournament. This would be the first time that an event was held in an open format with the participation of the Russian national team of 48 athletes.

Venezuela and Russia relationship: The way forward 

During the visit, both the countries Russia and Venezuela reviewed their hundreds of bilateral agreements covering the financial, energy, agricultural, and other sectors. On Tuesday, there have been talks between high-level officials in the South American country, reported AP. Further, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart Yván Gil conducted a press conference in Caracas hours after the former arrived in the country. Both countries have promised to continue to support each other’s country and condemned the economic sanctions that have been imposed by the US on them. “We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends,” said Lavrov, reported AP. Further, he added, “It is their country ... and we are going to support it in any way so that the Venezuelan economy becomes an independent economy from the pressures of the United States and other Western actors.”