Yesterday, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated Orthodox Christmas on a military base near Moscow, U.S. troops descended from helicopters onto the deck of the tanker, dealing the Kremlin a humiliation such as it has seldom faced on the high seas. Some Russian commentators called the raid an act of war, though the official response from Moscow sounded a lot more cautious: The foreign ministry urged the United States to respect the rights of the Russian citizens on board and to "put no obstacles for their soonest return to the motherland."
The standoff, reminiscent of the tensest moments of the Cold War, deepened the dilemma Putin faces. The Trump administration kicked off the year with a series of belligerent moves, first sending troops into Caracas to arrest Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, then threatening a takeover of Greenland. Putin kept silent as the U.S. brought Maduro, his ally, to New York to face charges of trafficking drugs. While the Russian foreign ministry called on the U.S. to avoid
"any further escalation," some analysts speculated that the U.S. moves against Venezuela might offer benefits for Putin, heralding an era of great-power politics in which the U.S., Russia, and China carve up the world into their spheres of influence. But the American seizure of the tanker, known as the Marinera, was a reminder that between Moscow and Washington, a vast power differential remains.
THE U.S. UNDER DONALD TRUMP has aggressively pushed Russia out of Latin America while giving no apparent ground in Europe. That dynamic could change if Trump makes good on his threats to take Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally. Several European leaders, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, have warned that such a move could spell the end of NATO, granting Putin his long-held wish to dismantle the alliance. In a post on social media yesterday, Trump sought to give his European allies at least a modicum of reassurance. "We will always be there for NATO," Tru…
Among Russian pundits and propaganda outlets, reactions to the Marinera's fate reflected a mix of outrage and defeatism, as they realized that the U.S. has no intention of treating Moscow as an equal. "No one is carving up anything with us," Dmitry Agranovsky, a Russian TV commentator, wrote on social media. "We are just the next in line."
Some of the most influential military bloggers in Russia demanded an aggressive
response from the Russian navy.
"The Americans are not afraid of Russia," wrote Alexei Dzermant, a political observer in neighboring Belarus, a Russian ally. "There obviously won't be any trade of Venezuela for Ukraine."
A high-seas gambit humiliates Putin: Trump has pushed Russia out of Latin America and seized tankers while conceding nothing in Europe. archive.ph/J0uFF #trumpism #putinism