Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday.Mikhail Metzel/Reuters

Nina L. Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School, is the co-author (with Jeffrey Tayler) of In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones.

Russia’s patriotic bloggers and war correspondents – the group most supportive of the country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine – are outraged. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has sent forces to attack Russian ally Venezuela, kidnapping its president, Nicolás 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 foreign ministry – without a hint of irony – condemned America’s “armed aggression” against Venezuela as an “unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.” Moreover, Mr. Putin rarely reacts immediately to major events, preferring to observe........

© The Globe and Mail