The recent blog, “Putin Ate Trump’s Lunch–Again” observed that President Trump’s comments on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s involvement in Venezuela conflicted with the analysis of his own administration. The Wall Street Journal often finds ways to write favorable things about Trump, but on this occasion the paper provided a clear-eyed and helpful elaboration on Trump’s parallel universe. Their editorial “Russian Collusion in Venezuela” appears below in its entirety.
‘I had a very good talk with President Putin — probably over an hour,” President Trump said on Friday. “And we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. And he is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela. And I feel the same way.” Mr. Trump added: “I thought it was a very positive conversation I had with President Putin on Venezuela.”
It’s also the opposite of what the rest of his Administration and nearly every outside observer believes.
Since the mid-2000s Mr. Putin has made it a priority to strengthen economic, military and diplomatic ties with Venezuela. Moscow has sold more than $10 billion in weapons—assault rifles, jet fighters, tanks and missile systems—to Caracas. In 2008 Mr. Putin sent two Russian Tu-160 bombers on a training mission to Venezuela. The late dictator Hugo Chávez celebrated their arrival, declaring “Yankee hegemony is finished.”
In 2014 Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans to put Russian military bases in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Last December Venezuela and Russia again held joint training exercises.
In a June 2018 speech, then U.S. Southern Command Admiral Kurt Tidd warned about Russia’s incursions. “It has deepened ties with allies that share the Kremlin’s increasingly authoritarian approach to governance and resentment of U.S. global leadership,” he said. “It has extended financial lifelines to keep its allies in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua afloat.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that Russia convinced Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro not to leave the country when it looked like his military was ready to remove him. National security adviser John Bolton has repeatedly said Russia and Cuba are propping up the Maduro regime.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday gushed about the Venezuelan regime as “our partner for a long time” and called the attempt by democrats to restore the constitution a “cynical and reckless attack,” which aims “to overthrow the legitimate government.”
Apparently Mr. Putin’s idea of “something positive” for Venezuela is not the same as Mr. Trump’s.
When I was a little girl, the grown-ups were pretty upset about Russian influence in Cuba…to the point that we kiddies were worried that nuclear bombs might be coming our way.If we were so worried about Russian influence in Cuba, why should we not be worried about Russian influence in Venezuela?
Trump’s gullibility (collusion?) with respect to all-matters-Putin scares me more every day.
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