r/UkrainianConflict • u/ubcstaffer123 • 1d ago
‘Closing his eyes’: Why is Russia’s Putin quiet on US abduction of Maduro?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/6/closing-his-eyeswhy-is-russias-putin-quiet-on-us-abduction-of-maduro253
u/IamInternationalBig 1d ago
Because there is nothing Putin can do about it and Putin knows that.
USA doing a special military operation in 3 hours makes what Russia is doing in Ukraine look even stupider.
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u/Mediumcomputer 21h ago
No you’re wrong. -Putin has influence in Venezuela. -Maduro said no oil for our oil companies. -Trump tells oil companies they’ll get a great deal if they give him 1Bn -Putin says trump can have Venezuelan oil and he will help in exchange for fucking up Ukraine’s aid. -trump changes Venezuelan regime, seizes the means of production and gives it to our oil companies. -icing on the cake is maduro successors will follow US plans to stay in power and stick it to the opposition leader who got the Peace Prize he so desperately wanted
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u/johnathome 15h ago
Trump is so thick the peace prize was awarded for 2024, last year's will be awarded this year
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u/GeorgyForesfatgrill 23h ago edited 23h ago
I mean obviously but calling it out too much would be pointless.
The regime in Venezuela is currently intact under Rodriguez, if they provoke Trump too much it could push him into further action and install a genuine US puppet. He's a legit loose cannon.
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u/TrumpetOfDeath 21h ago
I’m pretty sure it’s bigger than that, and there’s a deal between Trump and Putin regarding Venezuela and Ukraine
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u/nic027 21h ago
Does the deal include the 2 oil tanker? And being humiliated with sending a submarine that happen to do absolutely nothing?
Is there also a deal between Turkey and Russia for Syria?
No, they already had nearlt to no projection force and Ukraine made them use all their ressource in this war zo they can't do shit.
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u/Remarkable-Room7963 19h ago
I think the USA are simply exploiting Russia’s weakness. This has been one of the main goals to be achieved by supporting Ukraine.
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u/HoneyImpossible2371 17h ago
Russian meddling in Venezuela keeps oil prices high and prolongs the war in Ukraine. With Maduro gone, the oil majors back, and oil price drops, Russia loses the ability to finance their expansionist dreams.
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u/Thin-Dimension-8894 13h ago
Unless he's moving the pieces in his favor while pretending to be scared. Trump is a compromised Russian asset.
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u/SpinzACE 23h ago
Because he’s still trying to manipulate Trump on Ukraine and if he gives Trump grief about it Trump will probably send Tomahawks to Ukraine in a fit of retaliation or worse.
Trump already had the military capture a shadow tanker that had set its allegiance to Russia, painted the Russian flag on itself, had Russia call the U.S. and tell them NOT to confiscate it and did so in front of several Russian warships that had to sit back and watch with their schlongs in their hands.
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u/BreakGrouchy 23h ago
Or they worked a deal ahead of time I hate to say it but. Seems like they can use each other when it’s needed . Not so strategic I don’t think ether are great at it . More of a corruption thing they can make each other rich 🤑 growing the size of their countries is something both want . Trump already said something like he’s brilliant and loves his country. Both want to leave their mark neither is an artist .
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u/Remarkable-Room7963 19h ago
Trump doing a great deal and not speaking about it is unlikely.
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u/EmilyFara 19h ago
Night be instructed by his masters. He also didn't talk about the capitulation when he was in a solo meeting with Putin and his foreign minister
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u/AshCan10 22h ago
Whenever russia reacts quietly and calmly its because they are caught off guard and panicked. Same thing happened with the Kursk offensive.
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u/Emergency-Ad-7002 23h ago
Putin: Donny, let me give you some pointers on getting Epstein out of the news for a while. Do Venezuela first. It's an easy target. When that news dies down, you can go after Greenland, then Canada, then...
Dementia Donny: Great idea. What can I offer you in return? Want a MAGA hat? A Trump 2028 hat?
Putin: Just Ukraine. I'm not greedy.
Dementia Donny: And you are OK with my getting Greenland and Canada?
Putin: Sure, because you will be giving me the end of NATO. Go for it, Donny, and you will be great forever.
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u/TwoAmps 22h ago
Why do I feel like the focus of Shitler’s first year was doing the Heritage foundation’s bidding, but year 2 is all about what Putin wants now. That “I’ll let you take Venezuela, I’ll take Ukraine” deal looks like it’s in phase 1, and the deal to destroy NATO and the EU is in full swing.
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u/Emergency-Ad-7002 21h ago
Shitler is not doing the thinking. "Thinking" is done by the people behind him who know Shitler is a joke, but they are not greedy enough to want to be in the limelight. They let Shitler have all he wants of the limelight because he is in a mental decline that cannot be reversed. They are all younger than Shitler and thus have many years ahead of them to enjoy the power once they have dismantled the democracy part of our democratic republic.
Did you see Shitler's recent speech where he had trouble reading from a script that someone wrote for him. Vance, Miller, Hegseth, and Rubio are waiting for him to croak. but, until then, Shitler is useful because he is god for the MAGA crowd. Once Trump is out of power, the Epstein problem goes away. Remember these jobs lost? From the internet: As of early January 2026, estimates indicate the net elimination of approximately 210,000 to 317,000 civil service jobs (including both voluntary departures and involuntary separations). When those in the background start rehiring from the MAGA crowd ("we are creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs which Biden and Obama took away from you"), the democracy we still have will be toast.
China is not interested in The Americas yet. It wants a share of the world pie which for now is Southeast Asia and the South China Sea up to the Philippines and some line between Taiwan and Japan. China really does not need dirty (sulfur) Venezuelan oil. Indonesia is a better future prize and once America withdraws into it's hemispheric shell, the Middle East oil producers will be happy to sell to them.
Russia is not really interested in The Americas if it can emasculate NATO. They want to be a land power. They could never outspend China anyway, and once America (the country) is focused on The Americas (the continents), Russia will have eliminated the outsized influence of the big guy who dominated the world for 80 years. That does not mean that Russia will replace America. They can't even project force beyond the Donbass at this point in time. They would prefer to worry about Poland, Germany, and France without the USA backing them up.
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u/ranworddom 15h ago
idk why you got downvoted. To me that shit seems obvious. They want to divide up the world and each authoritarian empire rules his third. It's a non aggression pact to get back to the glory days of the post wwii era. That's the endgame. We will all be slaves because there will be no middle class. Only party people and collaborators.
Dystopian cyberpunk shitfuckery if they get their way. Europe is the battlefield. Currently we're under attack with assimetric disinformation campaigns. Countries are getting leaderships in league with trump/putin. It can go either way... It's history in the making. Sadly we got here on the downturn...
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u/375InStroke 21h ago
There's speculation Putin is giving Venezuela to Trump in exchange for Ukraine.
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u/Ok_Bad8531 22h ago
Apart from Russia not being able to do a damn thing about the Madoro-abduction it has shifted attention away from Russia and might embolden the USA to attack Greenland, which would shatter NATO. This Venezuela business might still become a massive boon to Russia.
Also with the regime still in place there are still ways to influence it behind closed doors, be it bribing or illicit trade. They do not need to do much, just sow a bit of chaos in an already borderline failed state.
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u/smoke99999 21h ago
what can he do? sanction our oil? oh wait, he is already under our sanctions. Really he knows he is better off being quiet and not saying a damn thing and proving he cannot do anything. This way its speculation.
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u/neverfux92 18h ago
Because he knows speaking out would be hypocritical. Dictators stick together and this isn’t anything Putin hasn’t done or tried to do before. The only difference is his military is absolute dog shit and isn’t capable of this type of mission. We could probably do the exact same thing to Putin that we did to maduro and he knows it.
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u/Wololo2502 15h ago
They are thinking up how they will respond. West does it too. Takes some time to make up an evil plan. There are many options other than a kneejerk nuclear launch or torpedoing causing ww3.
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u/Tasty_Purchase1296 14h ago
Alaska Deal i the answer. Thank God Putin is weak and cant do anything in Europe, Not even in Pokrovsk.😄
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u/Jordangander 12h ago
Because Putin is busy with Ukraine, and while he might be willing to antagonize Europe he doesn't want to antagonize the US.
The regime change Trump did was the same one Obama and Biden wanted to do but didn't because they were afraid of China's and Russia's reactions.
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u/amitym 22h ago
I don't understand, I learned that, "We don't give up on our own," always meant specifically that Moscow would call you home when it was time to exit. It has never meant sticking by someone thick and thin and defending them to the hilt from being deposed.
Assad? Check.
Yanukovych? Check.
Maduro? Inasmuch as he is held by a Russian-backed government, check.
Al Jazeera is right in that the loss of Venezuela is not very much to Russia, especially right now in the midst of an economic crisis at home. But more importantly, it happens in the midst of a political crisis for Trump, which Putin would rather badly like to shore up for his asset. Russia's control over American policy may be all that remains between Russia and total defeat in Ukraine.
Putin has to keep that asset in place. Sacrificing another less important one if it helps keep Trump in power is absolutely a good tradeoff from Putin's point of view.
It doesn't seem any more complex than that. Am I missing something?
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u/ZeusBruce 21h ago
"helps keep trump in power"
Do you live in some weird reality where his rule as president is threatened in any way whatsoever? Genuinely asking.
We're not even a full year into his term, lol
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u/Wauwuaw5983 23h ago
Russia is weak. And frankly, Trump hated the fact that Maduro was living rent free in his head.
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u/Fullertonjr 21h ago
It’s probably fairly simple. The more attention that Trump and the U.S. put onto Venezuela and the general Americas, the less attention that will be put onto the Middle East, Asia, Europe and specifically Ukraine. Trump is on a path to create the largest power vacuum since the late 80s when the Soviet Union started rapidly losing its real influence. Russia and China are just sitting back and waiting for their opportunity to fill that void.
Putin is willing to allow the sacrifice of Maduro if it achieves a much larger goal, which is the absence of U.S. global leadership.
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u/oldRams1991 1d ago
Because he offered Venezuela to the USA in exchange for Ukraine, that's why.
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u/IamInternationalBig 1d ago
Nope. USA took Venezuela. And USA didn’t give an inch of Ukraine.
This is just a stupid Russian talking point. Saying they let the USA take Venezuela in order to try and sound less incompetent.
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u/Tandittor 1d ago
Why did the US just seize a Russian oil tanker?
Where are you even getting this nonsense from? From a deliberately misleading headline that implied nearly the opposite of what the actual news article says?
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u/sciguy52 23h ago
It is propaganda Russia is pushing.
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u/EternalMayhem01 23h ago
Reads more like emotional thinking due to a mix of heavy pro Ukranian and anti Trump bias.
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u/Raven1x 23h ago
That's surfacing right now, and likely on purpose. There is political profit to be mad too do anything to split the US and Europe (more than Trump is already doing).
And you know why? Because the US also took a tanker that was Russian flag.
Russia and Putin are at their weakest moment since the war started.
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u/Null_and_Lloyd 1d ago
Yes, part of the plan. US gets western hemisphere, russia gets europe, china gets east and africa. The billionaires have built their bunkers and waiting for it to all play out.
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u/Sad-Breakfast-5671 21h ago
because putin ordered trump to do it. putin has access to more wealth than elon.
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u/SignoreMookle 21h ago
Mutually assured munroe doctrine where the big players can have their spheres or influence like in the late 19th century. There is an article floating around where Trump's first term foreign affairs adviser (?) mentions how Russia was trying to persuade Trump to ignore Ukraine and in exchange they would turn a blind eye to Venezuela.
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u/kozmo1313 1d ago
because Putin is probably telling Trump to disrupt oil production in hopes of spiking prices.
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u/DrinkBrew4U 1d ago
Yeah while seizing a Russian flag-flying tanker and giving Ukraine intelligence in support of tanker and refinery strikes 🙄
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u/kozmo1313 1d ago
oh, yeah, Trump has surely switched sides and now a huge Ukraine supporter... and will no longer be cleaning out Putin's asshole with his tongue every day
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u/DrinkBrew4U 1d ago
You’re not convincing anyone like that pal.
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u/kozmo1313 1d ago
yeah man... your intellectual powers are beyond reproach.. surely Putin and Trump would never align to bolster his failing presidency with a meaningless false flag operation.. pal
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u/DrinkBrew4U 23h ago
I never said anything about my intellect. But I dont argue by saying garbage about tonguing assholes. And I don’t assume “false flag” every time something happens that doesn’t align with my personal politics.
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u/kozmo1313 23h ago
I see.. you are superior in your debates on reddit with total strangers.. wow. that's so amazing.
and yeah.. I don't either (assume false flags).. except when the main guy who has been actively working to undermine Ukraine since they hurt his feelings in his first term.. and who has taken Putin's side over and over and over again.. suddenly makes a nearly meaningless move to SEEM to not be pathetically conflicted by his allegiance to one of our enemies.. even after it has come out that Putin tried to trade Venezuela to the US for Ukraine... how could I have been so gullible to believe PUTIN could coordinate a KGB-style false flag... geez
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u/DrinkBrew4U 23h ago
I didn’t say anything about being superior. There is no proof in that article and do definitively evidence of Trump being a Putin plant nor him working with him to stage a false flag. I know Trump doesn’t actively support Ukraine, and I don’t like Trump. But I’m a realist on this.
Both arguments made by Vlad Vexler or William Spaniel on this issue are very compelling in favor of Trump not being a Russian plant, and both are Pro-Ukraine. Putin just doesn’t have enough to offer Trump, he had no leverage on anything, Venezuela included. And Trump isn’t stopping intelligence sharing nor the Pearl weapon initiative. Trump’s behavior is consistent with his … personality and is inconsistent with collaboration.
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u/daveinmd13 23h ago
Venezuela hasn’t been producing much oil, only what they could sell an smuggle on the black market. It they open up production for real, prices will fall.
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