"Hazelnut" and the new Caribbean crisis: how Russia will help Venezuela and what it will lead to
And although Donald Trump said that war with Caracas is "unlikely", up to 16,000 American troops are already concentrated in the Caribbean - eight Navy ships, a nuclear submarine, B-52 strategic bombers, F-35 fighter jets, as well as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier with five escort ships. Nicolás Maduro has already asked his colleague Vladimir Putin for help, and if the Kremlin provides the requested help, the situation may become unpredictable. Focus collected everything that is known.
Donald Trump played down the possibility of a US war with Venezuela, but said that Nicolás Maduro's days as the country's president are numbered. Asked whether the US was going to war against Venezuela, the US president said on CBS' 60 Minutes: "I doubt it. I don't think so. But they treat us very badly.
" On November 2, the Kremlin confirmed that it is closely monitoring the development of events against the background of the escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas due to the US strikes and reports that Venezuela has turned to Moscow for military assistance. Escalating rhetoric between Moscow and Washington underscores growing geopolitical tensions in Latin America, where Venezuela's ties to Russia and China are deepening amid increased US military operations in the region.
The recent deployment of the U. S. Navy and a series of air and naval strikes on ships in Caribbean waters have raised alarm among regional governments and international observers, who fear that increased U. S. military activity could destabilize the region and draw foreign powers into further confrontation. Russian Foreign Ministry official Maria Zakharova said Moscow "strongly condemns the US use of excessive military force" in the Caribbean and supports the government and President Maduro.
And the press secretary of the Kremlin, Dmytro Peskov, said that Moscow is in contact with Caracas "because the countries are bound by various contractual obligations. " Peskov emphasized that Russia wants "that everything remains peaceful and that no new conflicts arise in the region. " Last week, Nicolas Maduro asked Putin for "defense radars, aircraft repairs and possibly missiles.
" He also appealed to Xi Jinping in China for help with a request to expand military cooperation to counter what Maduro called "the escalation of relations between the United States and Venezuela. " And the first deputy chairman of the State Duma defense committee, Oleksiy Zhuravlev, has already stated that Russia supplies Venezuela with weapons and did not rule out the possibility of handing over the Oreshnyk complex to Caracas.
"I don't see any obstacles to supplying our friendly country with such new developments as the Oreshnik," Zhuravlyov said. He emphasized that Russia is a key military-technical partner of Venezuela and supplies "almost the entire nomenclature of weapons, from small arms to aviation. " Venezuela, which makes the country "one of the most powerful aviation states in the region.
" Zhuravlev also emphasized the supply of S-300BM ("Antey-2500") systems to the Latin American country and the recent delivery of the "Pantsir-S1" and "Buk-M2E" systems. International obligations do not limit Moscow's supply of modern weapons. including the "Caliber" complexes. The White House has not yet commented on the fact that the Russian Federation has sided with Venezuela.
Due to the ongoing US operations and the desire of Venezuela for closer defense ties, the confrontation may intensify, which will lead to a new Caribbean crisis determination to topple Maduro, there is little that Russia can do except for diplomatic initiatives.