by Christina maza

As Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro faces the biggest challenge to his rule since coming to power in 2013, Russia has quite literally come to the strongman leader’s defense.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Kremlin-linked military contractors from the Wagner group had traveled to Venezuela in the past several days to provide security for Maduro. At least one source told Reuters that there were around 400 Russian military contractors in the country.

After the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared himself president of Venezuela on Wednesday, Russian officials have offered their full-throated support for the embattled Maduro. President Donald Trump and other leaders from the European Union and Canada, however, have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president and have backed the position of Venezuelan opposition leaders who say Maduro’s presidency is illegitimate.

Maduro’s approval rating is currently hovering at around 20 percent, but experts say Russia is unlikely to give up its support for Maduro even if he faces widespread opposition at home. Moscow has continued to support Maduro even as he oversaw a severe economic decline that provoked a humanitarian and regional refugee crisis.

“As the financial situation of the Venezuelan government became precarious due to a lack of oil profits, the Venezuelan leaders have been forced to look to other countries to bring in hard currency, and Russia has been all too eager to support a regime in Caracas that is anti-United States and has taken a number of actions to threaten the interests of not just the U.S. but other countries in the region,” Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council, told Newsweek.