While it’s far too early to tell how the United States’ incursion into Venezuela and removal of the dictator Nicolás Maduro will play out, one thing is fairly clear: The operation is bad news for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Maduro, one of the few heads of state to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was a key Kremlin ally in South America. The Russian president saw Venezuela as a foothold counteracting U.S. influence. What’s more, the Maduro regime was, in a very real sense, a Kremlin project.

Russia has invested billions of dollars in Venezuela under Maduro and his far-left predecessor Hugo Chávez; by 2019, that investment reportedly totaled $17 billion in loans and credits. Add to this billions in weapons shipments and additional money spent on military advisers. All of that now goes up in smoke.

What’s more, the Russian weapons sent to Venezuela have been not only wasted but shown to be pathetically ineffective in a clash with the United........

© Newsday