She did so in the program 60 minutes, which is moderated by the well-known journalist and propagandist Olga Skabejevová. “Do you want to suggest that we kidnap Zelensky? Do not provoke me to answer that by saying that it is necessary to strike somewhere and kidnap someone,” Matviyenko responded, saying that Russia “respects itself and is a respected country in the world.”
“If we were to act with such methods, we would lose our self-respect,” added Matviyenko, a member of the United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin.
Matvijenková also mentioned the American-Israeli strikes on Iran, during which, among others, the supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. “The United States had no effect from the assassination of Khamenei. But this stigma will remain with them forever,” said the Russian politician, who was mayor of St. Petersburg from 2003 to 2011.
On January 3 this year, after months of increased tension between the two countries, an elite commando of the US armed forces captured Maduro and his wife at his residence near Caracas on suspicion that they were involved in the international drug trade.
Both were subsequently flown from Venezuela to New York, where they were accused of narco-terrorism and taken into custody.
Washington stopped recognizing Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president in January 2019 after his re-election in 2018 was widely seen as undemocratic and fraudulent.
