The individual widely considered to be the successor to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is reportedly in Russia, according to a report released on Saturday.

Four sources with knowledge of the whereabouts of Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez confirmed her presence in Russia to Reuters. Despite these confirmations, the news agency also reported that Russia’s foreign ministry dismissed the claims as “fake.”

Earlier on Saturday, Rodriguez made a public demand through audio broadcast on Venezuelan state television, calling for the United States to provide “proof of life” for President Maduro and his wife. This demand followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that Maduro and his wife had been captured during a U.S. military operation.

“We demand that President Donald Trump’s administration immediately provide proof of life for President Maduro and the First Lady,” Rodriguez stated, as reported by Reuters.

An image from May 24, 2018, captures Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, and Delcy Rodriguez in Caracas, Venezuela. (Photo by Marco Bello/Reuters)

Trump later shared to Truth Social a photo of Maduro seen detained, blindfolded and clutching a water bottle while wearing gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. Trump said he would later be brought to New York. 

Maduro previously served as Venezuela’s vice president before he took power in 2013 following the death of then-leader Hugo Chávez. 

Jorge Rodriguez, who is Delcy’s brother and is the head of Venezuela’s national assembly, remains in Caracas, three sources told Reuters. 

When asked about what the future of Venezuela holds with Maduro no longer in the country, Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that, “we’re making that decision now.”

President Donald Trump shared a photo of captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima after strikes on Venezuela, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Truth Social/ @realDonaldTrump)

“We can’t take a chance of letting somebody else run and just take over where he left off. So we’re making that decision now,” Trump told Fox News. “We’ll be involved in it very much, and we want to do liberty for the people. We want to, you know, have a great relationship. I think the people of Venezuela are very, very happy because they love the United States. You know, they were run by essentially a dictatorship or worse.” 

Trump later confirmed at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., that the U.S. would run Venezuela on a temporary basis.

The successors to Maduro are likely to be the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, an expert said Saturday. 

Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez addresses the media in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 10, 2025.  (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)

Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan who is the president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital that “Machado and Gonzalez would assume a transitional government in Venezuela.