Russia warns against “destructive external meddling” in Brazil

(From left to right): The presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin; Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos; Brazil, Dilma Rousseff; Chile, Michelle Bachelet; and China, Xi Jinping during the BRICS Summit in Brasilia in 2014 [Xinhua]

Moscow has warned against “destructive external meddling” in crisis-hit Brazil, a BRICS ally.

Russia hopes for a constitutional resolution of the current political crisis in Brazil with no interference from abroad, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said on Sunday.

“Russia stands for solving Brazil’s political problems within the frames of the national constitution and without external interference,” Sergei Ryabkov told Russian daily Izvestia.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s opponents want to impeach her amid a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.

“We see that Brazil is going through a difficult period in terms of domestic politics. The most important thing for us is that all problems that might arise are solved within the frames of the constitution, without attempts at destructive external meddling,” he said.

Earlier last week, US President Barack Obama admitted Washington’s part in rise of a right-wing junta that killed more than 30000 Argentinians in the 1970s.

The Obama administration has announced that it would declassify thousands of CIA, FBI, and other internal documents that could shed light on Argentina’s “Dirty Wars”.

Fighting communism was a focus of America’s foreign policy in the 1970s, Obama said in Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile in Brazil, leftist President Rousseff said last week that the opposition move to impeach her is a “coup d’etat” against democratic rule.

“I will never resign under any circumstances. I have committed no crime that would warrant shortening my term,” Rousseff shot back at her detractors.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov said on Sunday that Russia values its “strategic partnership with Brazil”.

“It is a country we are cooperating with very productively in various formats, including within the Group of Twenty, BRICS and in many United Nations formats,” the diplomat added.

Vice President Michel Temer, who is the leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), would take over if Rousseff is ousted.

The PMDB is considering sweeping welfare cuts if it assumes power, a local Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo reported on Sunday. Party leaders have been quoted by the newspaper as saying it would trim spending on a flagship housing program called “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” for poor workers, as well as the much celebrated welfare program “Bolsa Família”.

PMDB’s economic program released in December proposes to keep public spending growing less than the overall economy, ending mandatory spending on health and education and eliminating the indexing of pensions and other payments to control Brazil’s widening fiscal deficit.

 

TBP and Agencies