Investigative journalist Dave Troy suggested that the current Venezuelan strikes and President Nicolas Maduro‘s capture have strings attached to a foreign policy initiated during the first Trump administration.
Troy Links Venezuela Strikes to 2019 Russia Plan
In a post on X on Saturday, Troy referred to a 2019 statement by Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and a former advisor in the Trump administration, indicating that Russia was proposing a swap between Venezuela and Ukraine.
“And the Russians at this particular juncture were signaling very strongly that they wanted to somehow make some
very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine,” Hill testified while also citing the Monroe Doctrine.
Troy implied that this policy is still in effect.
“If this was operational intel then, you can damn well bet this is a part of Kremlin-Trump policy now,” Troy wrote in a thread of posts on X.
“The idea this is some new sui generis Trump adventurism is unsupported by evidence. If this is the basis of this action…then this is transactional Trump deal-making, first and foremost. No real risk taken, he gets what he wants, Vlad gets what he wants, and his image is burnished. Boom: peacemaker.”
He also mentioned that the comments of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a Russian right-wing politician, support Hill’s testimony.
Russia Urges Maduro’s Release, Ackman On Oil Prices
Notably, Russia's Foreign Ministry on Saturday urged the U.S. to release Maduro and his wife. In a statement, the ministry said it "strongly calls on the U.S. leadership to reconsider its position and free the legitimately elected president of a sovereign state and his wife," emphasizing that the escalating confrontation should be addressed through diplomatic channels.
Meanwhile, billionaire Bill Ackman also commented on the Russian angle in the Venezuelan strike, but from the perspective of oil prices. Ackman argues that removing Maduro would push oil prices lower, benefiting the U.S. while hurting Russia, weakening Moscow's economy, and increasing the chances of an earlier, more Ukraine-favorable end to the war. It also claims the move would heighten security fears for President Vladimir Putin.
That being said, Russian central bank deputy chairman Sergey Aleksashenko believes that despite economic strain, Russia has the funds to sustain the war in Ukraine for another two to three years.
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