Norwegian Professor Questions Western Media Linking Russia to Venezuela Operation

Glenn Diesen, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, has expressed surprise at Western media outlets that concluded Russia was connected to the US operation in Venezuela.

Photo: Generated by AI by DALL·E 3 by OpenAI is licensed under Free for commercial use

Kremlin

Criticism of Western Media Narratives

Diesen shared his view on the social media platform X, commenting on an article published by The Guardian titled "The 'Putinization' of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela."

"Even when it has absolutely nothing to do with Russia, they can still link it to Russia,” Diesen wrote, criticizing what he described as a reflexive tendency to frame global events through a Russian lens.

The article argued that although US President Donald Trump acts as an imperialist, responsibility for the situation lies in a broader "slide into an era of competing spheres of influence.”

US Strikes and Charges Against Maduro

Explosions rocked Caracas on the night of January 3. US President Donald Trump later stated that the United States had launched large-scale strikes on the Venezuelan capital and that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been captured and removed from the country.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Maduro would soon stand trial. According to court documents, he faces up to four life sentences on charges including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, possession of machine guns and explosive devices, and their use against the United States.

Economic Fallout and Military Assessment

Restoring Venezuela's oil production could take around ten years, Bloomberg reported. Analysts estimate that US energy giants such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and ConocoPhillips would need to invest more than $100 billion to rebuild the country's oil sector, a process expected to be lengthy and complex.

Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Alejandro Lugo Pereira of the Venezuelan armed forces said the US succeeded in its military operation thanks to advanced satellite capabilities. Speaking to RIA Novosti, he described the strikes as a carefully planned and precise operation supported by satellite communications and positioning systems.

Pereira emphasized that without such intelligence and detailed knowledge of the terrain, conducting an operation of this scale would have been impossible.