The first 72 hours of 2026 seem like the prelude to a year to remember. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has been ousted in a mission straight out of a movie, ending a corruption-marked, cocaine-trafficking-fueled leadership in less than 30 minutes.

With Maduro now jailed in the U.S. and unlikely to be released anytime soon, Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a geopolitical dilemma that forces him to consider what he truly wants from Venezuela and Latin America.

Even though Donald Trump and his closest associates have been trying to explain Operation Absolute Resolve as the necessary epilogue of a dispute over resource exploitation and drug trafficking that diplomacy could not solve, the truth lies elsewhere. Trump ousted Maduro because of his close ties to Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, whose influence Washington wants to eliminate in the Monroe Doctrine-shielded Western Hemisphere.

Trump did not bless Absolute Resolve because of Maduro’s alleged involvement in illegal fentanyl trafficking, which is essentially a Sino-Mexican business, nor did he script a Manuel Noriega-style destiny for him to seize the country’s black gold. Greater influence in the oil industry is merely a bonus.

Putin may be tempted to offer Trump a full exit from the Americas in exchange for the partition of Ukraine. But the long-term benefits of such a pact are shrouded in uncertainty.

Since Hugo Chávez took power in 1999, Russia has sold more than $20 billion in weapons and military equipment to Venezuela. Moscow was allowed to maintain an undeclared spy network within the country and was invited several times to build or manage a naval........

© The Moscow Times