Greenidge sees oil link in Russia’s false claim of Essequibo military base

Carl Greenidge

More than a week after a note verbale was sent, demanding the withdrawal of untrue statements that a British military base was being built on an Essequibo River island to train Venezuelan refugees to destabilise the Nicholas Maduro government, Moscow has not retracted the claim.

“The Russian representatives were called in and firmly told that the story, as they are well aware, is untrue and we asked them to make it right; to withdraw it…I think all we have so far is an acknowledgement of the note verbale we sent them,” Foreign Secretary Carl Greenidge told Stabroek News yesterday.

Over a week ago, during a weekly press briefing that was broadcast live by Russia Today, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova said that “the British continue constructing a military base at the estuary of the Essequibo River.”