Post #4863

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 Years before American bombs fell on Caracas, the Russian leader was waging the largest land war in Europe since World War II, alongside an ongoing hybrid campaign across the continent. He didn’t need U.S. Special Forces to storm Maduro’s compound to order Zelensky’s assassination—he’s already tried and failed repeatedly to have the Ukrainian president killed. The expectation in Moscow was that America would be withdrawing from the world, but just in the past few weeks, Washington has bombed Nigeria, Syria, and Venezuela, and issued threats to bomb Iran (again), should the Islamic Republic open fire on protesters, which it has done. The Kremlin tried to shield an oil tanker that the United States was determined to seize—allowing it to fly the Russian flag, issuing diplomatic warnings, and even shadowing it with Russian military vessels, reportedly including a submarine. The U.S. Coast Guard took the ship anyway and then seized a second tanker near Venezuela. On January 3, Russia lost a major foothold in South America. In the past two decades, Moscow has provided $34 billion to Venezuela, mostly to purchase Russian-made weapons, and loaned it $3.15 billion that now may not be paid back. Russia also signed a defense-cooperation pact with Cuba last spring. The Trump administration is threatening that country, too, and Moscow is not really in a position to prevent Washington from raiding Havana. Washington’s rhetoric toward Moscow has changed as well. While visiting shipbuilders in Newport News, Virginia, War Secretary Hegseth quipped about the Venezuela operation, “Seems those Russian air defenses didn’t quite work so well, did they?” When asked what safeguards were in place to prevent escalation with Russia over Venezuela, Rubio delivered one of the most unpleasant lines Moscow could hear: “We’re not concerned about an escalation with Russia with regards to Venezuela.” He added that the United States has always expected Moscow to provide only “rhetorical” support for the Maduro regime. He then wished Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, a merry Christmas. As evidenced by new sanctions on Russian oil, the seizure of Russian tankers, and the continuing flow of American weapons to Ukraine, Putin has repeatedly overplayed his hand with the president of the United States. What’s worse for Putin—and possibly for the world—is that this Trump is on the warpath. Most of his recent press conferences have included references to bombing or regime-changing one country or another (the list now includes a NATO country, too). This is not the real-estate or cryptocurrency Trump. This is Trump with guns—a leader whose doctrine boils down to “ICE for Americans. Delta Force for everyone else.” On Friday, Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Trump whether he would ever order a mission to capture Putin. Trump replied, in part, “I’ve always had a great relationship with him.” #trump#putin#relationship#russia#oreshnik 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸