Indeed, recent moves indicate that Putin is eyeing even deeper intervention in Venezuela, both military and financial. An August meeting of Russian and Venezuelan defense ministers led to an agreement that the two countries’ warships could visit each other’s ports, possibly in preparation for future collaboration on territorial defense. No doubt, the Russians are mindful of reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is obsessed with the idea of a naval blockade against Venezuela. Combined with Russia’s existing naval arrangement with Nicaragua—through which it provides training and equipment in exchange for major port access and permission to operate a global satellite system—the deployment of warships and submarines from Venezuelan ports may aim to deny access to all U.S. naval operations to interdict vessels in the southern Caribbean. Indeed, the Cubans have already requested that Russia escort tankers carrying Venezuela’s shipments of free oil to the resource-strapped island.
Meanwhile, Russian troops have embedded themselves in garrisons around Venezuela by the hundreds according to Craig Faller, the head of U.S. Southern Command. With Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as a model, Russian soldiers have started donning the fatigues of the Venezuelan Army in an effort to blend in. Russia is also making a concerted effort to get its long-delayed AK-47 plant up and running in the city of Maracay, as well as upgrade the missile defense system it sold to Venezuela, which continues a long-term and worrisome buildup of Russian weapons amassed by the Venezuelan regime. What is worse, the Russians have openly mused about stationing cruise missiles in Venezuela as a response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The echoes of the Cuban missile crisis are chilling.