{"id":86545,"date":"2019-04-24T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=86545"},"modified":"2019-04-24T09:25:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T13:25:24","slug":"so-much-for-russia-trump-collusion-eh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=86545","title":{"rendered":"So Much For Russia\/Trump Collusion, eh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’ve always known that Vlad Putin was a butthead, but he’s been getting frisky for a while. His real interest lies in Venezuela’s oil. We all know that, and it is despite his having the largest shale oil reserves on the planet. But he doesn’t know how to do what we know how to do (frack it!) so he’s going with the least effort here.<\/p>\n

But do you remember the Monroe Doctrine? On Dec. 2, 1823. President James Monroe proclaimed in his annual message to Congress a new foreign policy initiative. In effect, he told the European powers that the Western Hemisphere would no longer be open to them for colonization. That was to include Russia, long before it became a public menace. We did, after all, buy Seward’s Folly from the Russians for $7.2 million in 1867, and they’ve been peeved at us ever since.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve paid any attention to the news in spite of the various disruptions to everything, you\u2019ll remember that Vlad Putin decided a while back to \u201cadopt\u201d Venezuela.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/04\/19\/russian-ambassador-to-venezuela-rejects-us-revival-of-monroe-doctrine\/<\/a><\/p>\n

From the article: In a rare interview, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Zaemskiy rejected an assertion this week by\u00a0U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton<\/a>\u00a0that the 1823 Monroe Doctrine is \u201calive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy, originally aimed at opposing any European meddling in the hemisphere, was used to justify\u00a0U.S. military interventions<\/a>\u00a0in countries including Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, but had been left for dead by recent U.S. administrations trying to turn the page on a dark past.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to believe that the U.S. administration have invented a time machine that not only allows them to turn back the clock but also the direction of the universe,” the 66-year-old diplomat told The Associated Press this week.<\/p>\n

Russia is a major investor in Venezuela’s oil industry, but those interests have been jeopardized since the Trump administration in January imposed sanctions on state-run oil giant PDVSA and even went after a Moscow-based bank for facilitating its transactions. At the same time PDVSA last month moved its European headquarters to Moscow from Lisbon, Gazprombank said it was pulling out of a joint venture with the company, Russian state media reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core value of Russia\u2019s association with Chavismo is a challenge to U.S. prerogatives in its supposed backyard,\u201d said Ivan Briscoe, the head in Latin American for the Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. \u201cThat said, Russian diplomacy is nothing if not realistic. They know Venezuela is plunging into an economic abyss with tragic humanitarian consequences. When the moment comes and tensions reach a height, they are likely to help negotiate a settlement, but will aim to exact the highest price they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article is quite long, but well worth the time it takes you to read it, so get some snacks and beverages to assist you.\u00a0 This should be interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always known that Vlad Putin was a butthead, but he’s been getting frisky for a … So Much For Russia\/Trump Collusion, eh?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[375,9,384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cold-war","category-foreign-policy","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86546,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86545\/revisions\/86546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}