The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo received a donation of 196 metric tons of sunflower oil from the government of the Russian Federation, according to the propaganda media of the presidential family. The delegation of the dictatorship that received the Russian product was headed by the sanctioned Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of the dictatorial couple and advisor for investments of the state-owned ProNicaragua.
The Russian ambassador to Nicaragua, Alexander Khokhólikov, told official media that “we particularly value the solidarity of the Nicaraguan government with Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine, I am convinced that the way out, in difficult times, lies in cooperation”. The Ortega-Murillo dictatorship is one of the few leaders who have expressed their support for Putin after the military invasion of Ukraine that was condemned by the international community.
The donation from the Russian Federation amounts to 1,151 million dollars and will be used to complement the third distribution of the School Lunch program that the dictatorship runs in all schools in the country. In 2021, Russia delivered 1,892 tons of wheat flour and 787 tons of sunflower oil to Nicaragua.
The Minister of Finance and Public Credit, the sanctioned Iván Acosta, praised the Kremlin and said that “the relationship with Russia has always been manifested with a generous contribution and solidarity in different fields. In health, education, science and also in strengthening the education of many Nicaraguans who were educated in the Soviet Union.”
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In February of this year, Ortega justified the military invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and stressed that what the Russian did was only “recognize those governments” since they are two provinces bordering Russia that they have resisted “the aggressiveness of the Ukrainian army”.
“Ukraine is looking for a way to get into NATO, and if it gets into NATO it is to say: we are going to war with Russia and that explains why Russia is acting in the way it is doing, it is simply defending itself,” he said. Nicaraguan dictator.
