CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's reliance on Russia is growing amid the country's unfolding crisis, and Vladimir Putin's point man in Caracas is pushing back against the U.S. revival of a doctrine used for generations to justify military interventions in the region.

Russian Ambassador Vladimir Zaemskiy is rejecting an assertion this week by U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine is "alive and well."

The policy, originally aimed at opposing any European meddling in the hemisphere, was used to justify U.S. military interventions in countries including Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.

Zaemskiy says "It's hard to believe that the U.S. administration have invented a time machine that not only allows them to turn back the clock but also the direction of the universe."