I haven't been keeping track of this realm of politics closely. Is there a concise well-informed summary anywhere? Unfortunately everything I find contains a degree of polemic that I find is usually accompanied by low-information content.
Maduro isn't a good leader. He's been very repressive, very likely stole the 2024 election from his opponent. Venezuela has terrible economic problems and food and medicine shortages.
They have been assisting Russia, operating a shadow fleet of oil tankers that routinely disable transponders to evade international sanctions against each other. They've also been helping Iran to manufacture UAVs.
They are also a narco-state. The cartel there has at least partially captured the government.
Installing a more palatable leader and administration would perhaps allow the sanctions to be lifted, oil to be sold on the global market, and aid to flow in. The brain drain from the country might partly reverse.
Or, it could devolve into a civil war, insurgency, mass refugee exodus, etc.
All the above describes many countries, more or less. Why the US is targeting Venezuela in particular likely has to do with oil, geopolitical principle (Monroe doctrine) and advantage (weaken Iran and Russia), Venezuelan immigration to the U.S., distraction from Trump's failing health, personal & political scandals, "red meat" for the base and war-hawks, and the political security afforded to a "war time" president.
>Monroe asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence,[4] and thus further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the region would be viewed as a threat to U.S. security.[5][6]
>In turn, the United States would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal affairs of European countries.
I highly doubt that weakening Iran and Russia is the goal here, and I'm not even sure how people got that idea. This isn't 2010 anymore.
These decisions require a pretty broad coalition to get a workable plan in front of Trump for him to activate for attention. So there is never 1 single reason, but my 2cents are that:
- Most of the oil export goes to China. Especially with the recent metals kerfuffle, this is a quick way to improve the US' negotiation position.
- The hawks in the army are getting restless and are clamoring for real-world modern drone warfare experience - especially if Taiwan turns hot. Getting a trial run in your backyard in similar terrain is good practice. (Assuming they'll send in an occupying force, and it's contested by china backed insurgents).
To be more explicit: Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the entire world and, due to the above, are not inclined to transact it with the US.
This deserves far more than the two little sidenotes you've dropped in here.
POTUS demonstrably does not give a fuck about countries "assisting Russia", "being repressive", "stealing elections" or "having economic/food/health problems".
Trump blamed Venezuela for stealing US oil when it nationalized US oil companies there, and for shipping drugs to America, and for creating Dominion voting machines which he believes were used to cheat in the 2020 election. Some in his administration have also blamed Venezuela for working with Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas. One or more of those could be the reason for the invasion.
Trump also blamed Venezuela for literally conducting an invasion of the United States (not just in rhetoric, but as his legal justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act in March of 2025.)
I can't remember the last time the US invaded a South American country and it ending up in a better position. Usually, a fascist dictator is installed, and the country is economically raped out of its wealth. The population is left oppressed and made even poorer.
> Venezuela is a hive of Russian, Chinese and Iranian activity in the Western Hemisphere. That is–long run–a problem for America.
A problem for American ideology or dominance? Sure. But a valid reason for war? No. Right now America is breaking international law. Stealing oil tankers is literal piracy. Bombing a country is imperialism. These things should be done with a process that involves other countries and seeks consensus.
> Venezuela is also a brutal dictatorship that is oppressing its people and producing waves of migrants.
Agree.
> Finally, Venezuela is rich in underdeveloped mineral and energy resources. (Caveat: Exxon currently pumps those wells.)
Given how the Trump family is using every single means to become rich through their power, I imagine this is their main motivation.
> Venezuela is also not Epstein, so, idk, there's that.
I view this Venezuela war and the Somalian daycare fraud as ways the administration distracts from inconvenient issues like Epstein and affordability.
>What do you mean? Do you think that Ukrainian natonalists started the war
You could start by watching Bush Sr.'s speech in Kiev in 1991: "Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred".[0]
Americans later did support them, of course. [1]
Fast forward to 2014:
"The night before the clashes, Right Sector called on all of its members to ready themselves for a "peace offensive" on 18 February. <...> That morning, around 20,000 demonstrators marched on the parliament building as that body was set to consider opposition demands for a new constitution and government. Around 09:45, the demonstrators broke through the police barricade of several personnel-transport trucks near the building of the Central Officers' Club of Ukraine and pushed the cordon of police aside. The clashes started after some two dozen demonstrators moved a police vehicle blocking their path to parliament." [2]
Right Sector is "the right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several ultranationalist organizations" [3]
After overthrowing pro-Ukrainian president who was predominantly supported by the Eastern Ukraine, pro-Western Ukrainian nationalistic "government" started what they cynically called Anti-Terrorist Operation in the Eastern Ukraine
I'm Polish, I know how Russians are, I do not need to watch American sources for this or to listen to Russian guy trying to shift blame from his country :)
You won't find any avenues in Russia named after Stalin. They were renamed after 1953 condemnation of Stalin's "cult of personality". Post-2014 regime in the Ukraine has renamed scores of streets after Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with Nazis. The most cynical was the renaming of major avenue in Kiev leading to Babiy Yar (the place where thousands of Jews were massacred) to honor Bandera and the renaming of the avenue that used to honor Nikolai Vatutin[0], Soviet general who fought Nazis on the territory of Ukraine, after after Shukhevych[1], another Nazi collaborator and mass murderer.
You can easily find the names of these despicable people in Google Maps on the maps of Kiev and many other Ukrainian cities.
No, it's what I found in 2025 in Moscow, if I were to look in whole Russia I would find hundreds of these. I'm ending this discussion, unfortunately it's very typical for Russians to discuss like this - always deny anything wrong even when facts are very clear, and when it's impossible to deny then just downplay it or even say that the wrongdoing you do is actually good.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt, товарищ. Soviet nostalgia has become central to Putinism and thanks to the non-stop brainwashing, in 2020 '75% of Russians agreed that the Soviet era was the "greatest time" in the history of Russia.'. This is used to justify the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian terrorist state.
Any random Eastern European sees right through your bullshit, protomolecule.
A new monument to Soviet leader Josef Stalin was unveiled in the southern Russian city of Volgograd on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the battle of Stalingrad — as Volgograd was known until 1961 — a key turning point in World War II. The bust of Stalin was installed near the Battle of Stalingrad Museum alongside those of Soviet World War II marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky. All three monuments were designed by sculptor Sergey Shcherbakov, a Volgograd native. This is the second monument to Stalin to have been unveiled in Volgograd in recent years. The first modern memorial, a two-meter concrete bust, was opened near the local Communist Party headquarters in December 2019 to mark the 140th anniversary of Stalin’s birth. According to a law adopted by the Volgograd Duma in 2016, the city reverts to its Soviet-era name Stalingrad on certain public holidays, including Victory Day and the annual anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Volgograd is a city with a population of 1 million.
Authorities in northwestern Russia’s Vologda region unveiled a statue of Joseph Stalin over the weekend, the latest monument to the Soviet dictator to have sprung up in the country in recent years. At an unveiling ceremony, Vologda region Governor Georgiy Filimonov described the Stalin monument as “a step toward a sober, balanced view” of Russia’s past. Just hours before, Filimonov laid flowers at a local memorial dedicated to victims of political repression. “It’s difficult to overestimate Joseph Stalin’s role in shaping our country’s history,” the governor said. “Of course, there were tragic lows [during his rule], but there were also highs.” Filimonov added that Stalin’s memory should be “cherished” and “passed on to future generations” to keep Russia “powerful.”
The most WTF of them all is erecting monuments to Stalin in occupied Ukraine.
The Communist Party of Russia unveiled a monument to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on May 8 to commemorate Victory Day in World War II, the party announced. The statue carries a plaque that reads: "To the organizer and inspirer of the victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders, Generalissimo of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin, from grateful descendants." The ceremony was attended by Russian-installed officials and local school students who laid flowers at the site. Melitopol has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Stalin's legacy in Ukraine is marked by profound suffering. Under his rule, millions of Ukrainians died during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in 1932–1933. The dictator also oversaw mass deportations, purges of Ukrainian intellectuals and leaders, and the suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture.
