The Russian president has been unable to protect his allies in Venezuela and Iran from an unexpectedly belligerent U.S. President Donald Trump.
– The war Putin once hoped would be over in just three days has stretched out for longer than Moscow spent fighting the Nazis.
– Even as Moscow bogs down in Ukraine, the global network of allies Putin spent two decades building seems to be falling apart.
– What was supposed to be a quick operation in Ukraine has turned into a grinding war of attrition.
– The duration of the conflict has now surpassed the 1,418 days the Soviets spent fighting back the Nazi onslaught, ultimately pushing the Germans from Moscow all the way to Berlin.
– During its almost-four-year campaign in Ukraine, Moscow has captured only a wedge of the country, at a cost of some 1.1 million Russian casualties and mounting disruption at home.
– This month some 600,000 Russians were left without electricity in the border region of Belgorod following a Ukrainian missile strike.
– Internationally, there appears to be little Putin can do to stop his allies from being picked off one by one.
– The Kremlin has been on the back foot in the Middle East since late 2024, when the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria deprived it of a reliable partner in the region.
– Moscow was also seemingly unable to protect its closest friend in South America earlier this month when the United States captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, a leader who had dutifully made the trip to Moscow for Putin’s Victory Day Parade in May last year.
– Moscow wasn’t even able to fend off the unprecedented U.S. seizure of an oil tanker flying a Russian flag.
– Just a year ago, Putin signed a 20-year strategic partnership agreement with Tehran.
– Now the regime — which supplied Russia with killer Shahed drones for its fight in Ukraine — is in danger of being toppled by protesters whom Trump has indicated he could intervene militarily to defend.
– The Iranians have no illusions that if the situation were to become truly critical, Russia would simply step aside, as it did in the case of Bashar al-Assad.”
– Putin himself hasn’t yet commented on events in either Venezuela or Iran, true to his habit of leaving his underlings to talk about bad news.
– Kremlin likely sees U.S. actions in Venezuela and against the oil tanker as attempts to push Russia into a corner.
– Even if it is weak, the Kremlin will be looking to show that it’s strong.
https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-ukraine-venezuela-iran-power-project-faces