For Putin, it is far more important to achieve victory over Ukraine than to maintain his influence on the global stage.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is trying not to provoke hostility from the United States, aiming for a favorable outcome in Ukraine. As The New York Times writes, this is one of the main reasons why the Kremlin leader has not publicly commented on the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the seizure of a Russian-flagged tanker by American military forces.
"His one goal is to emerge victorious in Ukraine, and everything else is subordinated to that goal," said Hanna Notte, director of the Eurasia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, to reporters.
According to Notte, Russia could complicate the American mission to capture dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, but Putin chose not to take the risk of damaging relations with U.S. President Donald Trump.
"All indicators of Russian foreign policy at the moment suggest that Ukraine outweighs everything else, so why strike at the Americans and fall out of their favor?" added Notte.
The publication noted that Moscow's restrained reaction is driven not only by strategic motives but also by limited capabilities. Recently, Russia has been facing a broader decline in its global power and cannot fully control the dynamics within friendly authoritarian states even in better times.
The publication emphasized that Putin has been losing his power on the global stage since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This war has undermined Moscow's influence in former Soviet countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Moldova.
Moreover, the publication noted that this trend accelerated at the end of 2024 with the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria. It continued with Trump's assertion of U.S. power over Venezuela, one of Russia's main partners in Latin America.
"The war in Ukraine is a black hole consuming Russia's resources. As the country becomes more resilient to Western pressure, it also weakens as a global player because it does not have many resources to realize its ambitions," said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Center for Russia and Eurasia, to reporters.
The U.S. Operation in Venezuela Provokes Both Hope and Concern in Ukraine
Earlier, Politico reported that the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro evokes both positive and negative emotions in Ukraine. It makes Kyiv fearful for its own arguments that Russia's invasion is a clear violation of international law.
It is noted that at the same time, Ukraine derives great pleasure from seeing Maduro, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, being sent to trial in the U.S. As this serves as evidence of the futility of previous sales of Russian weapons and security guarantees from Moscow.
