spoke to russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and reiterated that message he stressed that russias intervention is destabilizing for venezuela and urged russia to cease support for nicolas maduro national security adviser john bolton shared the same message on twitter just hours after the trumpputin call took place maduro is only clinging to power because of the support of russia and cuba the only foreign military forces in venezuela without foreign interference the democratic process in venezuela would be underway today more in embattled venezuela residents line up for hours just to get clean water look at how we are living that intervention included a call from moscow on tuesday according to pompeo maduro was prepared to depart the country for cuba when the russian government convinced him to stay pompeo and bolton said maduro has denied that calling it a lack of seriousness beyond the contingent of troops russia has confirmed it sent to venezuela pompeo said thursday there were russian people working over there in the hundreds if not more he did not provide evidence for that statement but he added it was critical for us national security that countries like russia dont continue to have the foothold that they have literally hundreds of miles from our shores national security advisor john bolton speaks to the media about the ongoing political turmoil in venezuela outside the west wing of the white house in washington may 3 2019 jim lo scalzoepa via shutterstock but trump seemed to cast doubt on any russian involvement by saying putin was not looking at all to get involved in venezuela in the face of trumps comments his senior officials met at the pentagon on friday morning acting defense secretary patrick shanahan and admiral craig faller the head of us southern command met pompeo and bolton to make decisions on our planning and some of the recommendations and make sure that were all in alignment according to shanahan we have a comprehensive set of options tailored to certain conditions shanahan added noting that the situation there could pose a national security threat to the us that justifies military intervention depends on the conditions right i mean you got the russians there you got the iranians there you got the chinese those are all considerations he said abc newss jordyn phelps contributed to this report from the white house and elizabeth mclaughlin from the pentagon