“There is only the law of force, and Russia has known this for a long time.” What Moscow is after, after quickly losing an ally in Trump's “Wild West”.

The swift capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the United States deprives Vladimir Putin of an ally and could increase US “oil influence”, but Moscow is looking to reap potential gains from US President Donald Trump's division of the world into spheres of influence, Reuters wrote on Monday.

US special forces captured Maduro just eight months after the Russian president forged a strategic partnership with his “dear friend” and Trump said over the weekend that the US would take temporary control of Venezuela, the country with the world's largest oil reserves.

Some Russian nationalists criticized the loss of an ally and compared the swift US operation to Russia's failure to take control of Ukraine in nearly four years of war.

But on another level, what Russia sees as Trump's “piracy” and “regime change” in the United States' “backyard” is more tolerable for Moscow, especially if Washington bogs down in Venezuela.

“Russia has lost an ally in Latin America,” said a senior Russian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

“But if this is an example of Trump's Monroe Doctrine in action, as it appears to be, then Russia also has its own sphere of influence,” the source added.

The source thus referred to the Trump administration's desire to reassert US dominance in the Western Hemisphere and revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the area as Washington's sphere of influence.

A second Russian source said Moscow sees the US operation as a clear attempt to seize control of Venezuela's oil wealth and noted that most Western powers have not criticized the US military raid openly.

The Perils of Trump's “Wild West.”

Putin has sought to establish a Russian sphere of influence in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, an initiative Washington has opposed since the end of the Cold War.

Putin has not publicly commented on the US operation in Venezuela, although the Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Trump to release Maduro and called for dialogue. The ministry headed by Sergei Lavrov previously described Trump's actions as “modern piracy” in the Caribbean.

Russian state media described the operation in Venezuela as a US “kidnapping”, reported Trump's statements that the US had “sick” neighbors and referenced the US capture of military leader Manuel Noriega in Panama on January 3, 1990.

“The fact that Trump simply “kidnapped'' the president of another country shows that, basically, there is no international law – there is only the law of force, and Russia has known this for a long time,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, told Reuters.

He said the modern Monroe Doctrine — which Trump suggested could be updated as the “Donroe Doctrine” — can be interpreted in different ways.

“Is the United States really ready to recognize Russian dominance over the former Soviet Union, or is it simply that the United States is so powerful that it will not tolerate any other great power coming close to it?” Markov added.

Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information policy committee of the Russian Federation Council (Moscow Senate), sees the US operation in Venezuela as a direct implementation of the US National Security Strategy, describing it as an attempt to revive US supremacy and gain control over more oil reserves.

But he said it risks leading to a return to “the wild imperialism of the 19th century and, in fact, to the revival of the concept of the Wild West – the Wild West in the sense that the United States has regained the right to do whatever it wants in the Western Hemisphere”.

“Will triumph turn into disaster?” he asked.

Russian nationalists compare Venezuela to Ukraine

For Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US president's focus on the Western Hemisphere — and the risk of getting bogged down in that region — seems more than acceptable, given Russia's attention to Ukraine and China's attention to Taiwan.

But some Russian nationalists criticized the loss of an ally so soon after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and compared the speed of the US operation to the much slower pace of the Russian military advance in Ukraine.

Russia's largest oil producer, Rosneft, ceased operations in Venezuela in 2020 and sold assets related to operations there to a company owned by the Russian government.

Jailed Russian nationalist Igor Girkin said the US showed in Venezuela how a great power should act when faced with a potential threat and portrayed the US operation as part of an attempt to cut oil flows to China.

“We suffered another blow to our image – another country that was counting on Russia's help did not receive it,” Girkin said.

“Being head over heels in the bloody quagmire of Ukraine, we are virtually incapable of anything else, especially since we cannot help Venezuela in another hemisphere, which is right next door to the United States,” Girkin added.