Kremlin contradicts Trump statement on alleged Venezuela drawdown

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Tuesday contradicted a statement by U.S. President Donald Trump and said it had not officially informed him about the activities of its military personnel in Venezuela who it said were continuing to provide military aid to Caracas.

Trump posted a message on Twitter on Monday, saying that Russia had told the United States that it had removed “most of their people” from Venezuela, where Moscow has maintained military and economic ties with socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Moscow had not been in touch with Trump on the subject, and that it appeared that his information had been taken from newspaper reports, which Russian officials have already denied, or from somewhere else.

Peskov said Russian military personnel remained in Venezuela in order to fulfil the terms of military contracts between Moscow and Caracas and that everything was going according to plan.