‘Closing his eyes’: Why is Russia’s Putin quiet on US abduction of Maduro?

A meme has gone viral connected Russian societal media networks with a punctuation from President Vladimir Putin, “We don’t springiness up connected our own,” placed adjacent to his photos with the leaders helium erstwhile declared Moscow’s “key allies”.

There were Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, who was toppled and killed successful 2011, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled and fled to Moscow successful 2024, and Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled and rushed to Moscow successful 2014.

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And past determination was a representation of Putin and his radiant Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, who was dragged retired of his bedroom by United States Delta Force commandos connected Saturday and is present awaiting proceedings successful New York connected drug trafficking charges.

Before abducting him, US subject forces struck the Buk-2MA aerial defence systems and radars Russia supplied to Venezuela and installed astatine seaports and airports arsenic portion of their “strategic alliance”.

However, Moscow’s defence practice pact with Caracas was vague and did not envisage contiguous subject assistance successful lawsuit of a overseas invasion.

And adjacent though Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Maduro’s seizure an “unacceptable enactment of equipped aggression”, Putin refrained from saying thing astatine each – fto unsocial meddling militarily.

‘Putin’s prestige and estimation suffered a blow’

The consequences for Russia are two-pronged, observers told Al Jazeera.

There is contiguous harm to the Kremlin’s already-tarnished planetary estimation but semipermanent benefits for Moscow’s insistence connected having carte blanche successful Ukraine and the erstwhile Soviet Union, including energy-rich Central Asia.

“On the 1 hand, Putin’s prestige and estimation suffered a stroke arsenic Maduro was his astir loyal state successful Latin America,” Alisher Ilkhamov, caput of the London-based Central Asia Due Diligence deliberation tank, told Al Jazeera. “Far much important to Putin is that with his actions, Trump is establishing a caller satellite order.”

But this ally’s worth cannot perchance outweigh the value of a caller satellite bid that US President Donald Trump is establishing, helium said.

“And this caller satellite bid is present based connected the precedence of force, not connected the planetary instrumentality whose cornerstone was the sovereignty of nations,” helium said.

What happened with Maduro resembles Moscow’s subject inaction aft al-Assad’s panicked formation from Damascus to Moscow successful December 2024 during the takeover of Syria by absorption forces.

One mentation is that Trump and Putin wrote Maduro disconnected during their August acme successful Anchorage, Alaska.

“Perhaps successful Anchorage oregon adjacent earlier, determination was a speech astir the regulation of spheres of involvement successful the world,” Nikolay Mitrokhin, a Russia researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.

The statement whitethorn person included concessions from Trump connected Ukraine for the involvement of future, post-war associated improvement of hydrocarbons successful Russia’s Arctic regions portion Washington gains power implicit Greenland.

“Trump’s persistent tendency to instrumentality implicit Greenland is made from the aforesaid cloth,” Mitrokhin said. “From there, he’d privation to power the bluish portion of ‘his portion of the world’.”

And aft Russia’s existing oilfields are tapped out, US companies could besides beryllium instrumental successful the improvement of the Bazhenovska Svita, the world’s largest shale lipid deposits successful the swampy plains of occidental Siberia.

US lipid companies pioneered the extraction of shale lipid and state portion Russian firms deficiency the technologies and expertise.

Control implicit Bazhenovska Svita would assistance the White House termination a overmuch bigger geopolitical vertebrate with the aforesaid stone.

“The United States needs Bazhenovska Svita to forestall China from getting determination arsenic it could signifier Beijing’s vigor independence,” Kyiv-based expert Aleksey Kushch told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the nonaccomplishment of Maduro does not airs immoderate peril to Russia arsenic media and nationalist figures influenced by the Kremlin usage the brazen seizure of a overseas president to lambast Washington’s “imperialism”, helium said.

‘Putin volition not get person to Trump’

Another adept said giving up connected Maduro volition not assistance Putin to mend ties with Trump close away.

On Monday, Trump said helium “didn’t believe” Putin’s assertion that Ukraine had tried to termination the Russian president astatine his Valdai residence successful northwestern Russia successful precocious December.

“By closing his eyes connected Maduro’s capture, Putin volition not get person to Trump,” Galiya Ibragimova, an adept with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace deliberation tank, told Al Jazeera.

“Putin is astir frightened by the information that successful Maduro’s coterie, determination was a idiosyncratic who leaked accusation to Americans, and present Putin – with his paranoid condemnation that everyone is aft him – volition firstly boost his ain security,” she said.

Maduro’s “extraction” whitethorn adjacent animate Putin to program the kidnapping of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she said.

At the dawn of his presidency successful the aboriginal 2000s, Putin developed ties with Maduro’s socialist predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez contempt Moscow’s increasing governmental tilt to rightward nationalism.

Chavez paid billions for Russian-made weapons specified arsenic tanks, helicopters, combatant jets and missiles, and Moscow adjacent opened a mill successful Venezuela to manufacture AK-47 battle rifles.

Russian experts played a cardinal relation successful Venezuela’s economical lifeline – the processing of heavy, hard-to-extract crude.

However, their outdated technologies could not perchance forestall the diminution successful Venezuela’s crude production, which helped origin a years-long economical nosedive, hyperinflation and encephalon drain of lipid experts from geologists to engineers.

After coming to powerfulness successful 2013, Maduro met with Putin a twelve times, and each of his visits to Moscow was a red-carpet, pompous matter afloat of rhetoric and communal assurances of “eternal friendship”.

In October, Maduro sent a plea to Putin, urging him to nonstop missiles for Russia-supplied S-300 aerial defence systems, repair Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 combatant jets, and proviso radars and different unspecified “logistical support”, The Washington Post reported.

He besides asked for a “financing plan”, the paper said, adding that it was not wide whether Moscow replied to the plea.

Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin voices contiguous Maduro’s autumn arsenic portion of an anti-Moscow program that volition surely “fail.”

“We simply person to fathom that the corporate West volition ne'er springiness up connected its attempts to decision Russia,” expert Kirill Strelnikov wrote successful an sentiment portion for the RIA Novosti quality bureau connected Tuesday. “You tin effort – and volition autumn from acold supra and painfully.”