Russian foreign minister seeks support from Latin American allies

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on Tuesday. The leaders reviewed financing, energy, and agriculture agreements between Russia and Venezuela. Lavrov said the countries are developing an alternative to SWIFT, the system used for global financial transactions. Russia’s banks were cut off from the system last year after Moscow invaded Ukraine. Lavrov will visit Nicaragua and Cuba later this week as part of his weeklong diplomatic tour of Central and South America.

Where else has Lavrov traveled? Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met Lavrov on Monday during the first stop on his trip. Russia and Brazil maintain a strong trade partnership. Lula condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine on Tuesday and called for a group of neutral nations, including Brazil, to help broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv. Western leaders criticized Lula over the weekend after he said that supplying arms to Ukraine was only prolonging the war.

Dig deeper: Read Brad Littlejohn’s column in WORLD Opinions on how to realistically approach the war in Ukraine.

Lauren Canterberry

Lauren Canterberry is a reporter for WORLD. She graduated from the World Journalism Institute and the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism, both in 2017. She worked as a local reporter in Texas and now lives in Georgia with her husband.