MOSCOW ¨C Russia¡¯s patriotic bloggers and war correspondents ¡ª the group most supportive of the country¡¯s ¡°special military operation¡± in Ukraine ¡ª are outraged. U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s administration has sent forces to attack Russian ally Venezuela, kidnapping its president, Nicolas Maduro, and seizing an oil tanker flying the Russian flag. Russia should be sinking American ships, they cry, or even launching nuclear missiles at its enemies. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has not even issued an official statement.
To be sure, the Russian Foreign Ministry ¡ª without a hint of irony ¡ª condemned America¡¯s ¡°armed aggression¡± against Venezuela as an ¡°unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.¡± Moreover, Putin rarely reacts immediately to major events, preferring to observe how they unfold and calibrate his response accordingly. This approach sometimes comes across as shrewd and confident, though in this case it may betray a sense of weakness ¡ª or at least profound uncertainty.
Before the attack on Venezuela, Putin appeared rather confident about Russia¡¯s position in Ukraine. Trump was promoting a ¡°peace plan¡± with a clear bias toward Russia and putting considerable pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to withdraw Ukrainian forces from territories they control. Add to that Russia¡¯s repeated strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which have led to constant power outages in the dead of winter, and Putin was convinced that Ukraine would soon be ready to accept its peace terms.
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