Posted on 01/30/2019 3:04:39 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Russian President Vladimir Putin spent years building up an alliance with Venezuela's late populist leader Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro, often playing host to the two in Moscow. As pressure has built on Maduro from self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido and his Western allies, Russia has stood firm behind its man in Caracas. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday vowed Moscow would "do everything" to protect its ally.
Behind this support, analysts say, is an understanding that if it loses Venezuela, Moscow will have few allies to speak of in Latin America. "Venezuela is practically the last thing that Vladimir Putin has left in Latin America," said Vladimir Rouvinski, a Russian international relations specialist at Colombia´s Icesi University.
Moscow likes to present itself as an "alternative" superpower in Washington´s backyard. But while it has close ties with Venezuela and traditional ally Communist Cuba, Moscow´s relations with Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina have been hit by recent changes of leadership there, Rouvinski said.
The rapprochement between Russia and Venezuela dates back to Chavez, who espoused what he called "21st century socialism". The relationship continued to thrive after Maduro took over following Chavez's death in 2013, with Caracas acquiring Russian arms and military equipment in deals worth $11 billion between 2005 and 2017.
Russian television has given wide coverage to protests in Caracas, likening the events to Ukraine´s 2014 popular uprising that toppled a pro-Kremlin president and led to Moscow´s seizure of Crimea and a long-running separatist conflict. Given Russia´s vehement opposition to such popular uprisings, "a limited Russian military operation cannot be ruled out" but only as the "very last option" for Moscow, Rouvinski said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenews.com.pk ...
Geee...that’s a shame. Maybe the Putin puffers here can open a GoFund me account to help the Russians.
Yep
Maybe he shouldn’t have meddled in US elections and let Mrs.Clinton be elected.
Is that good or bad, I’m so confused.
Hurting a socialist is bad. But hurting Russia is good unless Trump does it then it’s bad. Are we at war with Eurasia this month? Better check my monitor.
That would be Agence France Presse.
Yes you are correct. My bad. :)
How does Trump’s action on removing Maduro help the Dems position that Trump is a Putin puppet?
VZ promised IOU’s to various friendly tyrranies, leveraging their in-ground oil as collateral. What could go wrong?
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