Maduro's Capture: How the US is Strengthening its Influence in Venezuela and What Moscow Thinks - Reuters
Kyiv • UNN
US special forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, depriving Vladimir Putin of an ally and strengthening US oil influence. Moscow views this as an attempt to control Venezuela's oil wealth and a possible sign of the Monroe Doctrine's revival.
The United States' capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has deprived Vladimir Putin of an ally and could strengthen the US's "oil influence." At the same time, Moscow is considering the possible benefits of President Donald Trump dividing the world into spheres of influence. This is reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
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US special forces captured Maduro just eight months after the Russian president agreed to a strategic partnership with his "dear friend." Trump stated that the US had temporarily taken control of Venezuela, which has the world's largest oil reserves.
Some Russian nationalists criticized the loss of an ally and compared the swift US operation to Russia's inability to establish control over Ukraine in nearly four years of war.
But on another level, what Russia calls Trump's "piracy" and "regime change" in the US's "backyard" is more tolerable for Moscow, especially if Washington gets involved in Venezuela
"Russia has lost an ally in Latin America," said a high-ranking Russian source who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the situation. "But if this is an example of the Monroe Doctrine under Trump, as it seems, then Russia also has its own sphere of influence."
The source was referring to the Trump administration's desire to restore US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the territory a zone of Washington's influence.
Another Russian source noted that Moscow sees the US operation as a clear attempt to gain control over Venezuela's oil wealth, and noted that most Western states did not openly criticize it.
Putin is trying to define Russia's sphere of influence in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine, which contradicts Washington's aspirations since the end of the Cold War.
Putin has not publicly commented on the US operation in Venezuela, although the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Trump to release Maduro and start a dialogue. Earlier, the ministry characterized Trump's actions as modern piracy in the Caribbean Sea.
State Russian media presented the operation as a US "kidnapping," quoted Trump's statements about "sick" neighbors, and mentioned the capture of military leader Manuel Noriega in Panama on January 3, 1990.
"The fact that Trump simply 'stole' the president of another country shows that there is virtually no international law — there is only the law of force, but Russia has known this for a long time," Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, told Reuters.
He noted that the modern Monroe Doctrine — which Trump proposed to update as the "Donroe Doctrine" — can be interpreted in different ways: "Is the US really ready to recognize Russia's dominance over the former Soviet Union, or is it simply because the US is so strong that it will not tolerate any great power even nearby?"
Alexei Pushkov, head of the information policy commission of the Federation Council of Russia, regarded the US operation in Venezuela as a direct implementation of the US National Security Strategy, calling it an attempt to restore American superiority and gain control over larger oil reserves.
But he warned that this risks a return to "19th-century wild imperialism and effectively a revival of the Wild West concept — in the sense that the US has restored the right to do whatever it wants in the Western Hemisphere." "Will triumph turn into disaster?" he asked.
For Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, having a US president focused on the Western Hemisphere — and potentially occupied there — seems more than acceptable, given Russia's focus on Ukraine and China's on Taiwan.
But some Russian nationalists criticized the loss of an ally immediately after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and compared the speed of the US operation to Russia's much slower successes in Ukraine.
Russia's largest oil producer, Rosneft, ceased operations in Venezuela in 2020 and sold its assets there to a company owned by the Russian government.
Convicted Russian nationalist Igor Girkin stated that the US showed in Venezuela how a great power should act in the face of a potential threat, and called the operation part of an attempt to limit oil supplies to China. "We suffered another blow to our image — another country that counted on Russia's help did not receive it," Girkin said. "Stuck up to our ears in the bloody swamp of Ukraine, we are practically incapable of anything else, especially considering that we cannot help Venezuela in another hemisphere, which is literally next to the US."