Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro discussed expanding a strategic partnership between their countries in a phone call on Tuesday, Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing the Kremlin.
They also discussed the situation in Ukraine. Maduro expressed support for Russia, condemned what he called destabilizing activity by the United States and NATO and stressed the importance of fighting what he calls a campaign of lies and disinformation launched by Western countries.
The initiative for the conversation between the leaders came from Venezuela.
In January, about a month before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin had suggested sending troops to Venezuela and Cuba as a way of putting pressure on NATO, the Western military alliance. The two Latin American countries are Putin’s main allies in the United States’ strategic backyard.
At the time, the crisis that resulted in the invasion of Ukraine was already taking shape, and Russia also threatened to abandon the dialogue it had with NATO on the subject. The Kremlin has deployed more than 100,000 men since November on the neighboring country’s borders.
At the time, Vice Chancellor Sergei Riabkov said that it would not be possible to exclude the positioning of forces in Latin American countries. The echo of this is obvious: in 1962, the Soviet Union wanted to respond to US nuclear missile installations in Turkey by placing a rocket regiment in Cuba.
The incident caused the most famous crisis of the Cold War, with an American naval blockade preventing the arrival of Soviet ships with more weapons, almost leading to a nuclear conflict between the powers.
It is not an unrealistic exercise to think that Ryabkov thought of nuclear-capable missiles a few kilometers off the US coast, to respond to NATO’s alleged intention to do the same with Russia in Eastern Europe.
