Russians are devastated about Venezuela

So Russia has been losing its mind all weekend. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Telegram channels and state TV have all been going crazy about what's happening in Venezuela. And Russian state TV have been running constant monologues about violations of international law while the producers behind the scenes are googling what that means. And obviously Russian calling this a violation of sovereignty is like a burglar calling the police and saying his crowbar has been stolen. And this outrage isn't because they care about Venezuela, it's because it hits Putin directly.

And to understand why, we have to go back to 2018. In 2018, Nicolas Maduro lost the election, and basically all international governments refused to accept it, but Moscow did. And this showed a pivot when Putin decided Venezuela is worth propping up at a real cost,

because Putin doesn't back losers unless he's buying something. And from that moment on Russia deepened its support in four main ways. Money, security, weapons, and political projection. Let's start with money and oil. Rosneft, which is a state oil giant in Russia, poured nine billion dollars into Venezuela over a nine-year period and they did it through years of loans. And that money it wasn't charity, it was leverage. Those loans were very often repaid in oil and that ties Venezuela's production directly to Russian interests and that gave Russia access to crude flows even under sanctions pressure. Venezuela already had Russian military equipment but after

2018 that increased dramatically. Advanced air defense systems, systems like the S-300, started appearing all across Venezuela. Training, maintenance and Russian personnel became part of that ecosystem. Wagner started showing up in Caracas. And all this matters because military and air defense isn't just symbolic, it's regime survival infrastructure. But this is a pattern and it fits what we've seen in Syria, Africa and other parts of the world where Russia has been meddling. You don't send PMCs to win hearts and minds, you send them to keep regimes upright. And some would argue this is the most important point, money. After 2018, a huge amount of the central bank's gold reserves were moved to Moscow

and this is the moment that Russia became one of Maduro's last financial lifelines. But this is also 101 what Russia does. They look for dictatorships, states that are isolated like the Assad regime. They back them up, they prop them up, they give them everything they want and they use them as political leverage. And what Russia was doing with Venezuela was giving them an anchor in the western hemisphere and that anchor is now gone. So again Russia was using Venezuela as one of its strongholds exactly like the Assad regime and exactly like Iran. But the third and most symbolic reason for Russia having a foothold in that region was a propaganda trophy. So Putin is starting 2026 with a disaster.

Last year, Assad fallen. This year, he loses Venezuela. And it looks like things are destabilizing in Iran. And if Iran falls, that's basically the bingo card for Russia's isolation. And again, losing Syria wasn't just losing a friend.

It was also losing the Tartus, the last warm sea port that the Russian fleet could use to access places like the Mediterranean. So again for Putin this is a nightmare sequence. The Middle East slipping, Latin America slipping, partners unstable. Basically what imperial overreach looks like when money runs out. And looking forward at 2026, Russia is fighting a grinding war in this country. Burning reserves, losing influence, dictators they backed are falling, cash pipelines are closing, oil refineries

are being hit, refineries are being

hit, the shadow fleet is being hit, and the myth that Putin sells that Russia is unstoppable, inevitable, and everywhere is cracking. And nothing scares the Kremlin more than precedent, because if Mondoro can fall, others can fall too. So that's how it looks for Russia right now, basically a total disaster. But I also want to talk about what it looks like inside Venezuela. Basically every video I've seen in the last couple of days have been of jubilation, of people celebrating in the streets.

So I decided to reach out to actual Venezuelans and get their opinion of what they think this means for their country, what the future looks like, and what they hope to see. So right now I'm about to speak to Laura. Venezuelan, she is a travel influencer, but she's been very vocal about what's

happened in the last few hours. It's incredible that people still criticize what has been done. I mean finally someone has done something whether you like it more or less well but finally someone is doing something and I ask all these people who tell me, ah welcome to colonialism it's just that this shouldn't be done like this by force I don't know what. Well, how would you have done it? Explain to me how would you have done it? Don't tell me what you wouldn't do. Tell me what you would have done. Then they run out of arguments and tell me no, no, I'm not going to argue. No, no, no, no, no,

I'm not going to argue with you because I am. I am do we do it? If we don't do it why don't we do it? What would you have done? You would have done nothing, nothing. And so we've been together for 27 years, huh? So the Venezuelan people are super happy with what is happening and that is the only thing that matters.

Thanks for joining me Laura. So you mentioned that what you've seen on western media and social media reflect what Venezuelans actually feel right now or people inside the country and what their lived experience has been. You've said it's frustrating watching non-Venezuelans defend or explain a system that Venezuelans themselves have had to survive. But the first thing I want to ask you is what was your immediate reaction when you found out the news? I'm so happy. I'm more happy

that if I had won like six,000 euros, I promise. And talking bad about the government, because I always say the truth in my videos, I cannot go to Venezuela because it's the same. So for me, it's difficult to go to Venezuela if Maduro is governing. So I was very happy to know that he's not there and I can go to Venezuela if Maduro is governing. So I was very happy to know that he's not there and I can travel to Venezuela and I have many Venezuelan people following

me. Yeah, it's the same like in Cuba. They cannot talk about anything. They want to complain about the government. They cannot and they are and they are sent to jail. And many people are going out of Venezuela to other countries just to be free and speak clearly, as you and me are talking now. So they cannot do that. And they have their family. You go out of your country, but you still have your family there,

and you cannot go back, and you cannot see your family. So apart from that, there's no freedom at the time of buying things. Everything is controlled, money is controlled, people are earning like three dollars a month. So it's really, really crazy. You go to a supermarket and you can find anything. It's not that I'm supporting Trump, everything he does, because I'm not, but I'm very happy with this he did because of Venezuelans. Venezuelans now are very, very happy. I don't know any Venezuelan person who is not happy with the situation.

Looking ahead, what do you actually hope for the future in Venezuela?

I hope to see Maria Corina, the one who won the elections, Edmundo won it, but Maria Corina is the one governor. So I hope to see her governing Venezuela, which is what Venezuelans want, because they voted for her.

But in the end, Maduro took the government and stole the elections. So I hope to see a free Venezuela like Spain is, and do what they like, and everybody can come in and go out anytime they want. So this is what I hope to... prosperity, yes.

Thank you so much for joining me. It was really great to get your insight. Thanks again. So thank you so much for watching this report. I hope you found it interesting. If you did, please leave a comment, maybe something I missed or something you want me to cover in future. I love reading feedback and it really helps the algorithms of this channel. And again, I made this video to talk about not why Trump did this, what it means for Western countries,

but what it means for the people of Venezuela and what it means for Russia and Ukraine. So if you enjoyed it, please leave a comment, please hit like, Ukraine. So if you enjoyed it, please leave a comment, please hit like, please hit subscribe and I will see you next time. Thanks.