The detained Nicolás Maduro — a photo posted by US President Donald Trump on his social network Truth Social
Human rights and freedoms are not sovereign. They are universal. And even if the USA was guided by other motives, for us Russians, who know firsthand what a dictatorship is, which cannot be re-elected or overthrown, the aforementioned motives are important. And now — the details.
1. Maduro is an illegitimate president who stole the results of the last elections. Exactly as Putin did in Russia.
2. Maduro is supported by the bayonets of the Cuban KGB, just as Putin is by the bayonets of the Russian FSB/KGB.
3. Following Chávez, Maduro completely destroyed the country's economy by nationalizing the oil industry and completely ruining it. Even Sechin and his "Rosneft" were forced to leave Venezuela.
4. Maduro forced more than a million Venezuelans to flee the country due to hyperinflation and shortages of everything, including food.
5. Chávez had already closed opposition media: they had a 2nd channel TV, like we had NTV, Chávez closed it, even though it seemed the street was for him. What was he so afraid of? We know what. A Bolotnaya in Venezuelan execution with its lack of institutionalized politics. Maduro expelled the last opposition journalists from the country.
6. Repressions in Venezuela are countless — people disappear, they are killed, they are shot. In such dictatorial regimes, changing the top leaders through grassroots mobilization (grassroots, non-violent protest) or elections is impossible. Just as it is impossible in Russia. Just as it was impossible in Belarus in 2020. Putin is saved by the presence of a nuclear bomb. Maduro, thank God, does not have these deadly "toys" for the planet. And now, placing your hand wherever is comfortable, ask yourself: if tomorrow some country X extradited Putin and directly sent him to prison in The Hague, would you mourn the loss of sovereignty or rejoice that Gorynov, Favorovskaya, Komleva, and thousands of others have a chance to survive?
* Yevgenia Albats is declared a "foreign agent" in the Russian Federation.