Putin tells Maduro, “I’ve got your back”.
Vladimir Putin has pledged his support for Nicolás Maduro in a phone call after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
The Russian president “expressed solidarity with the Venezuelan people” during Thursday’s call with Mr Maduro, the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin also “confirmed his support for the Maduro government’s policy aimed at protecting national interests and sovereignty in the face of growing external pressure”.
Russia has fostered warm ties with Venezuela, with Mr Maduro earlier this year visiting Moscow, where he attended a military parade and signed a broad partnership agreement with Mr Putin.
Thursday’s call came after armed US troops fast roped from helicopters onto the deck of the tanker and entered the ship with their rifles raised. The tanker, reportedly named the Skipper, was carrying Venezuelan crude to Cuba.
The seizure marked a significant escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas, which has ratcheted up to place the two adversaries on the brink of war.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large – the largest one ever seized actually,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday.
He added: “And other things are happening, so you’ll be seeing that later.”
Asked what will happen to the oil, the US president replied: “I assume we’re going to keep the oil.” He said the seizure was carried out for a “very good reason”.
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said the US had “executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”, she wrote on X.
“This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely – and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, said the phone call between Mr Maduro and Putin would not be “concerning to the president at all.”
She reiterated that the Trump administration plans to seize the oil on board the vessel and will follow the standard legal procedure. Mrs Leavitt added that US personnel were currently interviewing the tanker’s crew.
On Thursday Mr Trump further ratcheted up the pressure on Venezuela by sanctioning three of Mr Maduro’s nephews, two of whom were convicted of drug trafficking in 2016.
Joe Biden granted them clemency in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap, but the pair returned to Venezuela and continued drug trafficking, according to US officials.
The third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, is linked to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, and was removed from a US sanctions list by Mr Biden.
Further sanctions targeted the country’s oil sector, including a businessman and six shipping companies, and identified six vessels as blocked property.
Tommy Pigott, deputy spokesperson at the state department, said the sanctions were in response to the targets “propping up Maduro’s corrupt and illegitimate regime in Venezuela.”
The administration is planning to intercept more ships transporting Venezuelan oil, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Asked if the seizure was a one-off, Mrs Leavitt said the US was “not going to stand by and let sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism.”
Further direct interventions by the US are expected in the coming weeks targeting ships carrying Venezuelan oil that may also have transported oil from other countries targeted by US sanctions, such as Iran.
The oil tanker may have been trying to conceal its location by broadcasting falsified data, according to the New York Times.
Location data reportedly showed the tanker was anchored in the Atlantic Ocean near Guyana, but the ship had been hundreds of miles away off Venezuela from late October to at least Dec 4.
Mr Trump has suggested several times that the US could carry out land strikes on Venezuelan soil, saying that Mr Maduro’s “days are numbered”.
The tanker seizure will only add fuel to Caracas’s claims that Mr Trump’s actions are driven by a desire to access the country’s vast oil reserves, which the US has denied.
The string of strikes has sparked bipartisan outrage, with some Democrats and Republicans questioning the legality of the attacks.
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, has come under scrutiny for strikes on September 2nd in which two men were reportedly blown up in a second strike while clinging to the flaming wreckage of an overturned boat.
Admiral Frank M Bradley, the commander overseeing the operation, reportedly told members of Congress he had asked the military lawyer whether the two men were now “shipwrecked” and unlawful targets, according to the Washington Post.
Footage of the strikes reportedly showed the men were seen waving their eyes and looking to the sky before Adml Bradley concluded the definition did not apply to the two men and ordered a second strike.
The department of defence has been under pressure to release the full footage of the strikes. Mr Trump initially said he had “no problem” with releasing the video but later deferred the decision to Mr Hegseth.