Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the crisis in Venezuela could only be solved by getting the authorities and the opposition to talk to each other, the RIA news agency reported.

“We continue to believe that the only way to exit this crisis is by sitting the government and opposition down at the negotiating table,” Lavrov was cited as saying by RIA. “Otherwise it will simply be the same regime change that the West had done many times.”

For its part, Sputnik quoted Lavrov as voicing concern over the situation in the Latin American country.

“When it is announced from outside that there is a new interim president for a country, it is in my opinion unacceptable.”

Major European nations on Monday joined the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.

Source: Agencies