Russian president congratulates Nicolas Maduro on his victory in the presidential elections in Venezuela

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Nicolas Maduro on his victory in the presidential elections in Venezuela during a phone call this Monday, the Kremlin press service reported.  "Putin and Maduro confirmed their readiness to further progressive development of bilateral cooperation in the spirit of strategic partnership. And several practical issues in Russian-Venezuelan cooperation were discussed," the report says. According to recent reports, the gap between the candidate of the ruling power, Nicolas Maduro, and his main rival, the opposition leader Henrique Capriles, is increasing: according to the National Electoral Council (NIS) after counting 99.17% of the votes Maduro is leading by 1.77%, RIA News reported.NIS notes that Maduro gained 50.75% of the votes, while Capriles got 48.98%. The overall turnout was 14.9 million.