Kremlin condemns U.S. military operation in Venezuela

Allies and adversaries of the Maduro regime have been watching the events unfolding in Venezuela, and they're weighing how to respond and what it means for them. That includes Russia, an ally of Maduro. NPR's Charles Maynes is in Moscow and is here to talk about Russia's stance on all of this. Hi there.

CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Hi there.

SUMMERS: Charles, let's start with Moscow's formal response to the U.S. attacks and the arrest of Nicolas Maduro. What are they saying?

MAYNES: Well, we haven't heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin, at least not yet. It's just about Orthodox Christmas here. And instead of commenting on Venezuela, Putin today was awarding gifts to kids by phone. Now, his foreign ministry has issued a statement calling the Trump administration's pretext for attacking Venezuela unfounded. They're demanding Maduro's release from U.S. custody, saying it was an unacceptable assault on Venezuela's sovereignty. So Moscow is expressing outrage, but it's just that, an expression, words. You know, but Russia stopped short of challenging the Trump administration.

We're forcefully amid this months-long pressure campaign against the Maduro regime. In fact, the Kremlin reportedly rebuffed a request by Maduro for direct military assistance in the fall. And the reason, it seems, was Moscow's desire to maintain good relations with Trump as it tried to sway him over any peace deal for Ukraine. And, of course, there's also the fact that because of that war, Moscow doesn't have that much military equipment to hand out, not even to its friends.

SUMMERS: And speaking of friends, Charles, remind us of the nature of the relationship between Russia and Venezuela.

MAYNES: Well, they weren't that close during the Cold War, but that changed with the revolution in Venezuela that brought Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez, to power near the turn of the millennium - a time, by the way, when Vladimir Putin also happened to show up in the Kremlin. So in pretty short order, Venezuela becomes Russia's most important trading partner and military ally in Latin America. Oil was always the center of that but so, too, were shared foreign policy goals, particularly when it came to countering U.S. influence on the global stage.

SUMMERS: So we've talked about the official response, but what about the Russian people? What has been their response to U.S. actions in Venezuela?

MAYNES: Yeah. You know, this is the latest in a string of recent foreign policy setbacks for Russia concerning its allies, and nationalists in particular here have been angry and loud about it. There was the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria in 2024. You remember that dictator Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in the aftermath. There were these U.S. airstrikes against Iran, another ally, over the summer. And, of course, Trump continues to threaten the Iranian regime. And yet, like in Venezuela, Moscow's basically stood aside.

Meanwhile, this U.S. attack on Venezuela, the capture of Maduro, you know, it sure looks a lot more competent version of the military operation the Kremlin launched against Ukraine in 2022. So there's some envy here, a point raised to me by Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin, who's now a critic in exile.

ABBAS GALLYAMOV: What Trump did to Maduro actually Putin should have done to Zelenskyy. Trump solved the problem within just half an hour. Putin is still going through painful and big expenses in people, in money, in sanctions. And he is far from being successful.

MAYNES: So there's some hard questions here being asked. SUMMERS: How damaging is this ultimately to Putin's image?

MAYNES: Well, Putin is unchallenged at home, but it doesn't exactly serve his image as a leader who is, if not respected, then at least feared on the global stage. You know, it also dents Putin's reputation among allies, many of them autocrats, frankly, who may be wondering if they're next on Trump's list.

On the other hand, Trump's rationale for his actions in Venezuela, you know, they sounds awfully in tune with Putin's own justification for the invasion of Ukraine. And arguably, that legitimizes Russia's might-makes-right approach when it comes to securing its own backyard. So all of this can really cut both ways.

SUMMERS: NPR's Charles Maynes in Moscow, thanks.

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