Posted on 12/02/2025 5:59:31 AM PST by Navy Patriot
Russia has begun evacuating its citizens from Venezuela, a sudden move that analysts say signals a major shift in Moscow's stance toward dictator Nicolás Maduro's embattled regime — and comes as U.S. military pressure on Caracas steadily intensifies, La Derecha Diario reported.
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia confirmed that flights are being organized to remove Russians from Venezuela.
The announcement, circulated widely by Russian media, sparked immediate speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for instability or distancing itself from Maduro after years of backing the socialist strongman.
The evacuation order comes at an unusual moment. Russian tourism to Venezuela has surged this year, with more than 6,000 Russians visiting Margarita Island between August and November on direct charter flights from Moscow.
That growth had suggested that Russia-Venezuela ties remained strong. Instead, the abrupt pullback has been viewed as a warning sign — one that highlights the regime's growing fragility, according to the report.
The backdrop to Moscow's decision is a sharp rise in tensions between Caracas and Washington.
The Trump administration has expanded maritime and air surveillance around Venezuela, strengthened joint security operations with Colombia and Guyana, and signaled that it will respond aggressively to any Venezuelan military provocation in the region.
The United States has also increased pressure on Maduro's government over its harboring of criminal and terrorist networks, its close alignment with Iran, and its threats against Guyana in the long-running territorial dispute over the Essequibo region.
Pentagon officials have warned that any Venezuelan escalation would trigger a U.S. response, contributing to a growing sense of volatility in that country.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Could there be a linkage to Ukraine talks?
It appears Putin does not want to tangle with the US over a third world turd hole. Stories a few days ago about Maduro leaving Venezuela and now the Ruskies leaving is good news. Maybe there is hope.
And the Donald has not been in office a year yet. Just think of the accomplishments yet to come, assuming the Deep State lets him live that long.
It would seem the tide is slowly turning against Maduro. In addition to this the Chinese have gone radio silent too.
CC
Still, America and President Trump Win, and Prog Marxist, Terrorist Supporting Democrat, Ex-Military Pussies Lose.
There is probably some mild linkage to the Ukraine talks.
But only mild. The vast majority of these Russian citizens who are having exits organized were tourists on that island. This has been going on for a long time, but it’s an opportunity for Russia to emphasize they are having citizens leave as Witkoff and Kushner are in Moscow.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a Russian tanker called the seahorse carried equipment and some light oil into the Venezuela ports essentially ignoring all of the US ships in the Caribbean, for the not very complicated reason that they were in international waters.
The equipment was offloaded for the purpose of helping dilute the thick Venezuelan oil which was then loaded onto a Chinese tanker and sent to China, and the American ships left that alone as well, as they should.
This article is largely speculative and probably entirely bogus. The president and several from the White House have already said that American troops will not be put on the ground in Venezuela and therefore there’s no reason to believe that Maduro cannot continue as he has for years.
Quid Pro Quo?
Your comment sounds quite reasonable.
Russians have no money to visit anywhere, much less Venezuela.
Putin learned a very hard lesson in Syria and is hoping to forestall a rout of Russian presence Venezuela. Russian delusions of grandeur in the Western Hemisphere have evaporated
I am really surprised about how this is going. But maybe I should not have been. Putin is in no position to support his far-flung allies. He has enough trouble close to home and is weak. But Maduro has an entire infrastructure of the government and paramilitary thugs supporting him that were built up over decades of Socialist rule. Hopefully Maduro gets much more of his revenue from drug trafficking than I thought. If so, Trump’ strikes are cutting it off and maybe he will fall.
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. Eurasia has always been at war wth Eastasia.
Time to make peace. If we have the Monroe Doctrine, Russia and China have to have theirs as well.
Venez cannot exist if Trump stops the drug trade. Maduro is history because communism doesn’t work in todays World. Putin is on thin ice since Russia’s economy is tanking and the war with Ukraine is not going well. Putin under estimated the resilience of the Ukrainian people and Trump.
Venez cannot exist if Trump stops the drug trade. Maduro is history because communism doesn’t work in todays World. Putin is on thin ice since Russia’s economy is tanking and the war with Ukraine is not going well. Putin under estimated the resilience of the Ukrainian people and Trump.
Shows Pooty-poot is not a trustworthy ally.
This applies to people AND nations.
The Lane Kiffin of world leaders.
Trump and Putin making a deal over Ukraine settlement
That was my thought as soon as I saw the headline!!
In 2017, Politico broke a story that has particular relevance to what is happening in Lebanon today.
In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.
Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.
They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.
But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy, and a review of government documents and court records. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.
“This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision,” said David Asher, who helped establish and oversee Project Cassandra as a Defense Department illicit finance analyst. “They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.”…
Only because the US allowed it.
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