Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has received little support from long-time allies Russia and China as President Trump ramps up military pressure against Caracas.
Beijing and Moscow, Maduro’s two most powerful allies, have previously provided Venezuela with military equipment, financial aid, and army training in the face of American aggression — but both nations have strayed from their usual tactics as they face their own military and economic woes.
While Russia previously deployed two nuclear-capable bombers to Venezuela as a united show of force against the US in 2018, Moscow’s generosity has apparently dried up as it approaches its fourth year of war in Ukraine.
So far, Russia has only provided two oil tankers to help Caracas’ pump its own crude oil for export to China, Vladimir Rouvinski, an international relations professor at Icesi University, told the Wall Street Journal.
“These are small gestures that are not going to be sufficient if the US moves to deadly force on Venezuela,” said Rouvinksi, who tracks Moscow’s engagement in Latin America.
Rouvinksi also noted that both Russia and China are currently in tense diplomatic and trade deals with Trump, with neither nation looking to upset the American president by making Venezuela an issue.
“Russia isn’t going to help Maduro beyond what they’ve already done,” Rouvinski added.
The apparent lack of support comes after Venezuela spent years building connections with Beijing, Moscow and other American adversaries to create an economic alliance against the West.
Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, leveraged the nation’s vast oil and mineral reserves to secure billion-dollar loans and deals with China, Russia, Cuba and Iran to build up the country’s infrastructure.
The alliance, however, began to falter when oil production fell and civil unrest spiked after Maduro took office in 2013, with the deals becoming further complicated after the US imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in 2019.
China would be the biggest loser if Maduro’s government falls, as Beijing has provided more than $30 billion in major arms to Caracas since 2000, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The situation has been playing out similar to that of Iran during the 12-day war over the summer, where Russia and China did little to help Tehran to prevent the American-Israeli bombings.
Maduro had reached out to Russia, China and Iran for help last month as the US began amassing its forces in the Caribbean, the Washington Post reported.
The Venezuelan leader had directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for defensive radars, aircraft repairs and even missiles, according to documents obtained by WaPo.
Maduro also pleaded with Chinese President Xi Jinping for an “expanded military cooperation” between their two countries to face the “escalation” from the US.
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