In Response to Putin’s Failure to Aid Regimes in Venezuela and Iran, Officials Close to the Kremlin Complain that ‘Strong Countries Don’t Treat Allies like This’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 14 – Three officials close to the Russian leadership have complained to the Meduza news agency about Putin’s failure to respond vigorously to US actions against Russia’s allies Venezuela and Iran, declaring that “strong countries don’t treat allies like this,” a view likely shared by other members of the Moscow elite.

            They and others concede that Putin does not want to pick a fight with US President Donal Trump just now because of the direction talks about Ukraine are going (meduza.io/feature/2026/01/14/rossiya-nikak-ne-podderzhala-svoih-partnerov-venesuelu-i-iran-vo-vremya-obostreniya-konflikta-s-ssha-chto-ob-etom-dumayut-rossiyskie-chinovniki).

            But the three suggest that they fear not only that Putin’s silence on Venezuela and Iran and also on the US moves against Russian ships sends a message that Russia is weak and will make it even more difficult for Moscow to retain the declining number of countries that it now counts as allies or to acquire more. 

            One of the three, a staffer in the presidential envoy’s office in Russia’s Central Federal District said that he didn’t expect Trump to act in the case of Venezuela but originally expected that Moscow would respond if the American’s moved given that Caracas has been a close ally of Moscow, especially given statements saying that the Russian government would do so.

            That there was no Russian response, he suggested in comments to Meduza shows that “there are simply no resources for a response” by the Russian government. All of its resources at present “are tied up in the special military operation” in Ukraine.