The “capture” of Venezuela’s president, , by deprives them of an ally and could strengthen the “oil influence” of the US, but Moscow at the same time sees potential opportunities from the president’s tactics of dividing the world into spheres of influence.
US special forces arrested Maduro just eight months after the Russian president and his “dear friend” struck a strategic cooperation deal, and Trump said the US had taken temporary control of Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves.
Some Russian nationalists are particularly critical of the issue, comparing the speed of the US operation to Russia’s inability to gain control of Ukraine nearly four years after the war began.
On a second level, what Russia characterizes as US “hacking” and “regime change” in its “backyard” becomes more tolerable for Moscow, especially if Washington becomes deeply involved in Venezuela.
“Russia has lost an ally in Latin America,” a senior Russian source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. “But if this is an example of Trump’s Monroe Doctrine in action, as it seems, then Russia also has its own sphere of influence.”
The source was referring to the Trump administration’s desire to reassert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which defined the region as Washington’s sphere of influence.
A second Russian source commented that the US operation is a clear attempt to control Venezuela’s oil wealth and noted that most Western powers have not publicly criticized it.
The perils of Trump’s “Wild West.”
Putin is trying to carve out a Russian sphere of influence in former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, an effort Washington has opposed since the end of the Cold War.
Putin has not publicly commented on the US operation in Venezuela, although the Russian Foreign Ministry has called on Trump to release Maduro and called for dialogue, previously calling Trump’s actions modern-day piracy in the Caribbean.
Russian state media described the operation as a “kidnapping”, and recalled the arrest of military leader Manuel Noriega in Panama on January 3, 1990 by the US.
“The fact that Trump simply ‘stole’ the president of another country shows that basically there is no international law – there is only the law of might – but Russia has known this for a long time,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, told Reuters.
He pointed out that the modern-day Monroe Doctrine — which Trump proposed to call the “Donroe Doctrine” — can be interpreted in many ways: “Is the US really ready to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the former Soviet countries, or is it so powerful that it will not tolerate any great power near it?”
Alexei Puskov, chairman of the Political Information Committee of the Russian Federal Assembly, saw the operation in Venezuela as a direct application of the US National Security Strategy, interpreting it as an attempt to revive American supremacy and gain control over more oil reserves.
But he warned that there was a risk of a return of “the savage imperialism of the 19th century and, essentially, the concept of the Wild West – the Wild West in the sense that the US has regained the right to do whatever it wants in the Western Hemisphere”. “Will victory turn into disaster?” he wondered.
Russian nationalists compare Venezuela and Ukraine
For Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the fact that an American president is focused — and potentially deeply involved — in the Western Hemisphere is more than acceptable, given Russia’s focus on Ukraine and China’s focus on Taiwan.
However, some Russian nationalists have criticized the loss of an ally so soon after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and have compared the speed of the US operation to the much slower pace of Russian expansion into Ukraine.
The largest Russian oil company, Rosneft, stopped its operations in Venezuela in 2020 and sold its related assets to a company owned by the Russian government.
Jailed Russian nationalist Igor Girkin said the US showed Venezuela how a major power should act when faced with a potential threat, portraying the operation as part of an effort to curb oil flows to China.
“We have received another blow to our image – another country that relied on Russian aid did not receive it,” Girkin said. “Deep up to our ears in the bloody quagmire of Ukraine, we are practically incapable of anything else, especially since we cannot help Venezuela on another continent next door to the US.”
