Eli Lake, Columnist

Putin’s Syrian Playbook Won’t Work in Venezuela

Russia has enabled a geopolitical crisis and is now offering to help solve it.

May 13, 2019 at 6:30 AM UTC

Updated on

May 13, 2019 at 10:14 AM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

What are they up to now?
Photographer: MAXIM SHEMETOV/AFP

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In Venezuela, it looks like Russia is once again playing a weak hand well. The U.S. has imposed crippling sanctions on the state-owned oil company and lifted them on officials who have joined the opposition, such as the intelligence chief. And yet, with the support of Russia, Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro survives.

So when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives this week in Sochi, his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, will undoubtedly be looking to exploit the situation by using a familiar Russian ploy: Enable a geopolitical crisis, and then offer to help solve it.