Vladimir Putin said a multipolar world has become a reality. And while some, in the West, laugh off Moscow’s plans to undermine the post-World War II global order, the Kremlin is openly waging an unnervingly successful ideological war.
Putin does not need to send tanks or jets to Brussels, London, or Washington to weaken the West. Rather, by focusing on strengthening existing partnerships across the Global South Putin is garnering support for an anti-American world order.
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Highlighting this point is Putin’s reinvigorated efforts to back the Venezuela’s autocrat, President Nicolás Maduro, who is teetering on verge of being overthrown following a re-election widely considered to have been falsified, as exit polls show that around two-thirds of Venezuelans voted for the opposition candidate.
With Caracas in a crunch, Moscow stepped in.
Putin needs Maduro as a proxy for his ideological and hybrid war against the West, and he will help this broken dictator to survive.
Maduro has proven to be a useful tool for Putin in the Western Hemisphere.
Like Putin, Maduro has used militarization against his neighbors, playing the Russian game of “escalate to de-escalate.” In the case of Caracas, this came down to signaling military aggression towards the border of Guyana, with hopes of threatening the West by demonstrating their impotence in the region. Once Maduro escalated the situation, as Putin had done in 2022 with Ukraine, he demanded concessions in order to “de-escalate.”
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Russia’s role in this tried-and-true charade remains the same: Putin maintains his role as “mediator.” If the West does not want escalation of the conflict there, they will be forced to negotiate with Russia and allow Putin to be a relevant player in the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
Other countries also expressing concerns about the election’s integrity ultimately amounts to cheap talk.
While the West offers empty rhetoric and condemnations, Putin’s ideological war against the West rages – and to that the West is silent. It’s time for the West to act rather than talk. If Western leaders want to win this silent war against Russia, they have to think like Putin: a former KGB man, whose favorite game is deception.
If Moscow reaffirms and continues to strengthen its position in Venezuela, it will embolden Putin. Russia has already gone unchecked as it tightens the wrench in Georgia, overthrows numerous governments in Africa, interferes in Western elections, and now openly discards Venezuela’s election results.
If we want to see a change in Moscow, then it is time we stand up to the bully wreaking havoc across the world.
Washington should support the opposition against Maduro in Venezuela – not for only moral and ideological reasons, but because it is in America’s overall strategic interest to do so. Maduro’s fall could trigger doubts in other regional leaders’ minds as to whether Moscow can be counted on for support if the masses started to rise up against them. Washington should also introduce new sanctions against the Maduro regime.
The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation for crimes against humanity for Maduro’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Venezuela. This is a step in the right direction. The court has jurisdiction and should act fast and proceed with an investigation of human rights violations by the Maduro regime.
Looking ahead, it might be easy to think of Maduro as a “Latin America thing,” but one should not be so naïve. The reality is that Maduro is a key Putin proxy who needs to be defeated. If the US really wishes to support freedom and democracy – and to guarantee its own security – now is the time to stand up to those who are actively seeking to destroy us.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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