Russia may have quietly let the weapons systems it sold to Venezuela deteriorate for diplomatic reasons ahead of a US military intervention that those highly touted defenses failed to stop, according to two former American officials speaking to The New York Times.
Four current and former US officials told the outlet that Venezuelan forces lacked the capability to properly operate and sustain their Russian-made S-300 and Buk air defense systems, leaving the country exposed when the Pentagon carried out Operation Absolute Resolve.
Officials and specialists said Russia also bore responsibility, since Russian instructors and technical staff would normally be expected to certify that the systems were functional and assist in keeping them operational.
Two former US officials argued Russia may have intentionally allowed the equipment it sold to Venezuela to degrade, noting that if Venezuelan forces had downed a US aircraft, the diplomatic repercussions for Moscow could have been severe.
“I think, coming out of this crisis, Russian prestige is going to be quite tarnished,” Brian Naranjo, who was deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Caracas from 2014 to 2018, told The New York Times.
“They didn’t show up when Venezuela needed it,” he told the publication. “They’ve been revealed to be a paper tiger.”
Counter to Kremlin claims
This runs counter to claims promoted by pro-Kremlin commentators and media figures who argue Russia was not at fault because Venezuelan troops allegedly barred Russian personnel from accessing the systems.
“I spoke both with Chinese comrades and our own. Neither Chinese nor our experts were even allowed anywhere near the air defense systems. Everything that was supplied and purchased was operated by Venezuelans,” Russian television anchor and propagandist Vladimir Solovyov claimed on Sunday.
The Russian-made S-300 and Buk-M2 systems, which were intended to symbolize the strategic partnership between Moscow and Caracas, were reportedly not even hooked up to radar when US helicopters launched their incursion into Venezuelan airspace to seize President Nicolás Maduro, US officials said.
In 2019, Hugo Chávez announced plans to invest billions of dollars in Russian military equipment as Venezuela sought to upgrade its armed forces under an unofficial US embargo, including Su-30 fighter jets, T-72 tanks, and thousands of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles known as Manpads.
However, Venezuela reportedly had difficulty keeping the Russian hardware operational, frequently lacking spare parts and the technical expertise required to maintain or effectively use the equipment.
“Full support” but no concrete steps
“Russia’s own war demands in Ukraine may have limited its ability to sustain those systems in Venezuela, to make sure they were fully integrated,” Richard de la Torre, a former CIA station chief in Venezuela, told The New York Times.
Based on the outlet’s review of satellite imagery alongside photos and videos posted online, US forces focused their strikes largely on sites where Buk air defense systems had been deployed or stored.
Although Moscow pledged “full support” for Venezuela as tensions with Washington mounted in the lead-up to the military incursion, it has not taken concrete steps to back its ally, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said nothing publicly about Maduro’s ouster.
On Jan. 6, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ridiculed Venezuela’s Russian-made air defense systems, saying: “And then we saw, three nights ago, in downtown Caracas in Venezuela, as nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas – seems those Russian air defenses didn’t quite work so well, did they?”
War is a “dark hole” for Russia
Analysts say Putin is unwilling to provoke US President Donald Trump over secondary theaters if doing so could undermine Russia’s objectives in Ukraine, and that Moscow may have chosen to deprioritize Venezuela to stay focused on its war effort.
“The Ukraine war is a dark hole that consumes Russia’s resources,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told The New York Times.
“As the country becomes more resilient internally to Western pressure, it also becomes weaker as a global player, because it doesn’t have as many resources to throw around at its ambitions.”
Kyiv Post previously reported that Russia in 2019 proposed an arrangement to the first-term Trump administration offering US influence over Venezuela in exchange for Washington stepping away from Ukraine, according to Fiona Hill, a former senior White House advisor on Russia and Europe.
Hill later said that the remarks had taken on new relevance following the US military operation to oust Maduro.