On his weekly internationally broadcast TV show last Monday, President Nicolás Maduro participated in an interview during his segment titled "Media, Networks, Streets, and Walls." A Venezuelan colleague interviewed him on various topics. This article highlights three of the most significant moments from the interview. You can watch the full episode on "Con Maduro Más °32," his popular show that airs every Monday at 7 pm in Venezuela. The full episode is available here.

President Nicolás Maduro: “Little by little, we are going far! They continue to underestimate us, but we know what we are doing, and we are going to achieve it! You are going to see what we are going to achieve!”

Journalist Karen: “Do you trust that this will be able to be resolved in a peaceful, negotiated, and satisfactory manner for both parties?"

Maduro: “There is no other way, Karen! War is not an option; it is not an alternative! Who wants war between Guyana and Venezuela? The United States of America! Who wants war between the United States and Venezuela? The United Kingdom of Great Britain, and we are not going to give them the pleasure! Never! Never! They move their boats, they make their maneuvers, and we have ours, pum pum pam! That's why they spy on us. That is why the CIA from Colombia, the DEA, and the Southern Command from Colombia are spying on us. I tell them: you WILL NOT be able to defeat us!"

Maduro: “I tell the Southern Command and the United Kingdom they will NOT be able to defeat us! Our path is Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy; NO one or nothing can get us out of that path! You are going to see, step by step, we are going to be able to form a new framework so that Venezuela's historical claim is accepted, and Venezuela achieves its objectives!"

Karen: “President, now I propose to talk a little about Russia, which is always important. Russia is an important pole in the creation of this world with a balance of powers, and a few days ago President Putin said: “We will do everything possible to eradicate Nazism!” This is what he declared when the siege against Leningrad was lifted 80 years ago. I would like a reflection from you on this. Because I remember one time in 2013, I asked you a question about the situation in Ukraine, and you also knew Ukraine in peace and you warned about the situation in Crimea that the Empire was seeking to besiege Russia. What analysis do you do when you see President Putin's statements?”

Maduro: “President Putin, first of all, is a Man, a Strategist, a Victorious and Successful Leader. A Great Leader of Russia and the World, and he is fighting for what his Ancestors already demonstrated! It's been 80 years, but I don't really like the headline from the world's hegemonic press that says it's been 80 years since the end of the siege of Leningrad."

Maduro: “Leningrad is Saint Petersburg now; Lenin was born there that's why they named it Leningrad. Putin was born there, Putin's family is there, a very beautiful city. Soon we will be there in Saint Petersburg. What did I dislike in the headline? …End of the siege??? It was the victory of the Red Army of the Soviet Troops against the Nazis!! They crushed them!!!”

Maduro: “It is the longest siege in the History of Humanity. 1 million people killed by hunger, cold, or bullets. The Nazis besieged it, and the Soviets in Leningrad only had a small path to put in some food that was not enough for everyone. More than 900 days of siege, and the Soviet People, the ordinary People, the simplest and most humble People resisted! Eating rats, eating food from whatever it was, thawing snow to drink water. People were starving, 1 million dead in one city. 1 million for the siege, until the Red Army entered, recovered, and Achieved the Victory of the Liberation of Leningrad. That marked the beginning of the offensive that led the Red Army to take Berlin, defeat Hitler, and crush the Nazis! It was the Red Army, the Soviet Union that defeated the Nazis. Hollywood doesn't tell this; Hollywood says it was the Gringos.”

Karen: “Indeed, Russia has been denouncing for several years that some countries like the United States intend to rewrite history. It was precisely 79 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz and it was also by the Red Army, however last year 2023 they excluded Russia from the celebration of this day.”

Maduro: “It is Imperial meanness, the meanness of the right. If anything is mean in the world, it is the Empire and the right, its allies. Because it was the USSR (CCCP) that liberated Humanity from Nazism! They took Berlin and when they were taking Berlin, Hitler “disappeared.” They say he killed himself; they say he killed himself. Who knows if the imperialist armies themselves saved him? It is not known, at this point it is not known because that is how Imperialism is because Hitler was created as a Monster so that he would invade the Soviet Union and destroy the CCCP; that is the true truth. And they accepted Hitler's anti-Semitism and applauded him from Washington; they applauded anti-Semitism. The great anti-Semites of the world are the European elites and the American elites; it's that simple!"

Maduro: "And we must also remember Karen, as you say, those who liberated the European Jewish People. Those who discovered the concentration camps were the Red Army; those who gave the first bite of bread to that suffering people of my brother Jewish People were the Red Army of the Soviet Union; they discovered them and they were the ones who welcomed them. Because after the Jews, this is an issue that stings and spreads, the Jews after the triumph against Hitler were later persecuted in all European countries. By whom? For themselves, the Europeans! So history repeats itself. All our solidarity with President Putin. President Putin lost a brother, his older brother there. And he went to the grave to put flowers on it and tell it Russia is alive! Russia is moving forward! Russia will win! Congratulations to the Soviet People, to the Russian People!” 

Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview.