MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2021) Russia condemns all attempts to meddle in internal affairs of Nicaragua as the country is about to hold a general election, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
Earlier in the month, the United States slapped visa restrictions on at least 100 Nicaraguans who are affiliated with the Latin American country's government. In June, Washington imposed sanctions on four Nicaraguan nationals, including the daughter of President Daniel Ortega.
"We stand in solidarity with Nicaragua in defending its independence, its sovereignty. We categorically reject attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of that country, like those of any other country. We condemn the use of the so-called 'political engineering' against Nicaragua in light of the upcoming November general election," Lavrov said at a joint press conference after meeting with his Nicaraguan counterpart, Denis Moncada Colindres.
The top Russian diplomat went on to assert the right and ability of the Nicaraguan people to determine their own fate.
"We wish to warn those who seek to undermine the economic development of Nicaragua and other so-called undesirable countries through the 'sanctions garrote' in the hope of provoking widespread discontent. This destructive policy is not only inhumane, [but] it also creates hotbeds of regional tensions," Lavrov added.
President Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front has been a major political force in the country since the Sandinista Party overthrew the US-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979.
In November 2018, then-President Donald Trump approved an executive order declaring that the current Nicaraguan government "constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."
