Economic ties between Russia and Venezuela range from oil and loans to arms sales [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]
Kenneth Rapoza, Forbes: Russia Takes Its Syria Anti-Regime-Change Strategy To Venezuela
Fresh off his success in stopping another Middle East regime change in Syria, Vladimir Putin is now setting up shop in Caracas. It’s not as simple as saying Russia has financial assets to protect. Rosneft, the state oil behemoth, has been throwing money down a black hole in Venezuela for years. So has China. The recent move to bring in more military support is designed to protect Nicolas Maduro from what Russia surely sees as an orchestrated coup against him.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that it sent military personnel to Caracas this weekend. Unlike the U.S. military, which was never invited by any government official into Syria, the Russia military at least has been. Maduro is now surrounded by his own military, Cuban revolutionaries and gangsters. And now some Russians.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Venezuela is not Syria, because if a civil war was raging in Venezuela right now, it would involve every country in the region including the U.S.. What Russia is trying to do is protect the Maduro regime on the cheap. Advance loans with the hope that it will be paid-off in the future, green-light Cuba's military and intelligence support of the Maduro regime, and provide diplomatic cover on the international scene. I think this policy is going to fail. Venezuela is now a failed state, and the situation on the ground is getting worse. Deploying a few hundred Russian military contractors may help to boost the morale of Maduro and his supporters, but it is going to take a lot more solders and a hell of a lot of more money to rectify the mess that is Venezuela today, something that the Kremlin is not willing to do right now.
