Russia faces the seizure of power in Venezuela as a blow of its own, because an ally (another one) falls, because it did business with him and because, furthermore, part of its security was in its hands and it has failed, in the eyes of the world. However, the assertiveness of , the president of the United States, opens the door, at the same time, to similar behavior in territories of interest to him, such as Ukraine. So in that dilemma it moves.
Their reactions so far have been along these lines: condemnation but limited to rhetoric. But in recent hours there has been news of a movement to, at least, protect its energy interests: Vladimir Putin has sent a submarine to escort an oil tanker that the US tried to confiscate off the coast of Venezuela, reports today (WSJ).
According to the newspaper, which cites a US official as a source, Moscow has sent a submarine and other naval means to escort the oil tanker, previously known as “Bella 1”, which has been trying for more than two weeks to evade Washington’s blockade of sanctioned ships near Venezuela, one of the previous steps taken by the White House before proceeding to arrest Maduro last weekend.
Part of the ghost fleet
The ship failed to dock in Venezuela or load oil. Although it is empty, the US Coast Guard has pursued it to the Atlantic, in an attempt to take action against a fleet of oil tankers that transport illicit crude oil around the world (known as ), including that which comes from the black market sold by Russia, recalls EFE.
The ship’s crew repelled a North American attempt to board it last December and entered the Atlantic Ocean. As the Coast Guard followed, the crew painted a Russian flag on the side, renamed it “Sailor” and changed its license plate to Russian.
Russia has expressed concern about US seizures of tankers that transport its illicit oil around the world and boost its economy, and has taken the unusual step of allowing the ships to register in Russia without inspection or other formalities, according to experts consulted by the WSJ.
Russia has asked the United States to stop pursuing that ship, three other US officials told the newspaper, and its Foreign Ministry stated that it was following the situation around the tanker with concern.
However, the US Coast Guard has continued to track the ship in the Eastern Atlantic, where it is now sailing about 300 miles south of Iceland heading to the North Sea.
Between Ukraine…
The incident with the tanker comes at a time when Washington and Moscow are engaged in diplomatic disputes over Ukraine, threatening to complicate talks. Russia has not yet accepted the peace framework proposed by the United States and Ukraine, but the negotiations continue, somewhat more underground than a couple of weeks ago, partly because of Christmas, partly because of the .
US Senator Mark Warner, of the Democratic Party, has publicly denounced that the barrage against Maduro could lead Putin to abandon the negotiating table and do the same, that is, launch an operation against the president of Ukraine, whom he already wanted to neutralize at the beginning of his “special military operation”, which began almost four years ago.
The situation leaves Putin in a difficult position. He may indeed use the operation to justify his own invasion of Ukraine: He has repeatedly accused the West of double standards, citing, for example, the war in Iraq and NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia.
Putin has long distrusted the United States and has repeatedly criticized Washington for interfering in the affairs of other countries, describing this strategy as one of the factors that undermined relations between Russia and the West. Maduro’s capture in his own bedroom is likely to reinforce the Kremlin’s fears about US-led regime change efforts.
However, America’s aggressive rhetoric about the right to leadership in “its own hemisphere” is in tune with the Kremlin’s own worldview, which holds that Russia has the right to aggressively advance its interests along its borders.
Moscow once envisioned a quick victory in Ukraine, but nearly four years after its full-scale invasion, its troops remain stuck in eastern Ukraine, a stark contrast to the speed of Trump’s operation in Venezuela.
Over the past year, Putin has hoped to tilt Washington in Moscow’s favor and weaken international support for kyiv. This has been accompanied by a notable change in tone: Russian officials, led by Putin, have generally avoided direct criticism of President Trump, who jeopardizes the interests of the Federation.
Vladimir Putin during his visit to Kursk, an area that was occupied by Ukraine, in 2024
…and business
When it comes to its relationship with Venezuela, Russia has become one of the country’s key allies, with long-standing ties spanning energy cooperation, oil projects and arms supplies. Between 2005 and 2017, Moscow sold weapons worth more than $11 billion to Caracas, including Su-30 aircraft and S-300 air defense systems, in addition to holding joint military exercises.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mocked the usefulness of this equipment on Monday. “Looks like those Russian air defenses didn’t work so well, right?”
Since 2006, Moscow has also provided an estimated $17 billion in loans and lines of credit, according to agency calculations. These were political rather than economic investments. Maduro was one of the few world leaders to recognize Crimea as Russian when Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014, and backed the invasion of Ukraine.
Venezuela was one of Russia’s last unconditional allies. The arrest of its leader represents a new setback for regimes friendly to Russia, at a time when Moscow is obsessed with the war in Ukraine.
And there are similar recent precedents. In Syria, opposition forces overthrew Russia’s ally Bashar al-Assad in 2024. Iran, another close partner of Moscow, suffered US attacks on its nuclear program a few months ago, with little visible resistance from Russia.
Taken together, these cases raise uncomfortable questions about the political and military value of friendship with Russia. Just last year, Moscow and Caracas signed a strategic partnership agreement, but when U.S. forces went after Maduro, Moscow took no steps to protect its ally.
