When Some Russians Condemn US for Actions in Venezuela and Greenland, They May be Thinking about Moscow’s Actions in Ukraine, Russian Analyst Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 23 – One of the reasons officials in Russia’s federal subjects have come down so hard on Russians who have gone into the streets to condemn US actions in Venezuela and Greenland is that the officials suspect that when these Russians do so, they are in fact thinking and protesting about Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, Margarita Zavadskaya says.

            The Russian scholar at the Finnish Institute of International Relations says that in addition to viewing what some Russians are doing as “a proxy protest,” officials in the region recognize that any public actions could get them in trouble and so prefer not to take any risks (semnasem.org/articles/2026/01/23/protesty-v-podderzhku-venesuely-i-grenlandii).

            Russians who assume that they will not be repressed if they take actions that parallel the statements of the Kremlin are making “a fundamental error,” Zavadskaya says. They appear to think that ideology is what matters, but “the Russian regime operates not on ideology but on the loyalty of its personnel.”

            And personnel in the lower levels of the power pyramid in Russia know that they are taking an enormous risk by permitting such protests or failing to suppress them because their bosses will remove them because those higher up in the chain of command may decide that a failure to block protests represents a lack of loyalty, however “loyal” such actions may appear.