🇪🇺 Europe in 2025: militarization at its own peril

For Europe, the outgoing year was defined by two things: economic crisis and growing militarism. Pumping up the imaginary ‘Russian threat’, leaders have demanded hundreds of billions of euros in new, debt-fueled arms spending.

Check out the Europeans’ most aggressive outbursts, and Russia’s reaction, in our video.

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🇺🇸😐US violated intl law and does not care, as usual – ex-CIA officer

The US may claim to uphold the international law, which is in fact nothing more than a “law of convenience” for Washington, says retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson.

“We declare what's appropriate as long as it's convenient to us,” he explains.

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🚨US goal was to get rid of Maduro and seize Venezuela’s resources – Ex-CIA officer

“This is about securing the oil industry for US businesses. This is about trying to get the US back in control of Venezuela, as we controlled it for about 50 years after the end of World War II,” says retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson.

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🇺🇸 US nabs Maduro 35 years to the day after ousting Panama’s Noriega

🔶 Trump confirmed the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on the exact anniversary of the arrest of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega by US forces.

🔶 Noriega, once an American ally and CIA asset, ruled Panama through the ’80s but fell out of the US’ good graces over drug trafficking allegations.

🔶 In late 1989, then-President George H.W. Bush ordered an invasion.

🔶 Noriega was captured the next year and flown to the US, where he served 17 years in prison.

🔶 In 2010, he was extradited to France and sentenced to seven years for money laundering.

🔶 A year later, France sent him back to Panama, where he remained behind bars until his death in 2017.

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🇺🇸US' move to seize control of Venezuela is 'going to come to bite' them in the rear - ex-CIA officer

The US has a terrible record of trying to control a foreign country, as can be seen in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, notes retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson.

And a large number of armed Venezuelans who may not take kindly to a foreign occupation won’t make things easier for the US.

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📹 Plane carrying Maduro reportedly lands in New York

Major US media reports confirm an aircraft carrying detained Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, has landed in New York following their capture by US forces.

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🇺🇸 US destroys the rule of international law by kidnapping Maduro

🗣 The US kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife sets a dangerous precedent because any country could feel that it's their right to solve their diplomatic problems in a similar fashion, Dr. Vinicius Vieira, associate professor of economics and international relations at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation, tells Sputnik.

💬 “That's a clear violation of the notions of sovereignty that were built throughout time, that obviously were not respected by the great powers,” he adds.

🔶 It would also be hard for the US to contest the actions of other states who decide to do things the American way

🔶 Seizing a sitting head of a foreign state by force, to have him tried according to the laws of another country, “opens quite unprecedented problems in contemporaneous times”

💬 “We're living in a world in which what matters is no longer the international law, but the law of the most powerful,” Dr. Vieira notes.

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⚔️ Venezuelan VP declares 'only one president'

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez stated Nicolas Maduro remains the country’s only leader after what she called a US operation to seize the president and stage a coup.

"What was done to Venezuela today could happen to any country in the region," she warned.

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🇻🇪 US transfers Maduro to DEA headquarters in New York

US media state Nicolás Maduro will be moved by helicopter to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after appearing at the DEA’s New York headquarters.

📍 The facility is the only federal prison in New York City, also housing Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione, and P Diddy.

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📑 Venezuela’s Supreme Court orders Delcy Rodríguez to assume presidency

The court has mandated Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to serve as acting president following the detention of Nicolás Maduro by US forces.

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🗣 US capture of Maduro marks start of WWIII — Dugin

The operation signals we have entered a new global conflict, Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin stated, declaring "international law does not exist" and will be rewritten by the victors among great powers.

He framed the Ukrainian conflict as Russia's ticket to the club of great powers.

"If we have this ticket, we will be taken into account. If we do not… this international law will be established by someone else at our expense," Dugin said.

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🔊 Zelensky’s pick of Budanov as new chief of staff signals Ukraine’s imminent collapse - UK analyst

The US intelligence community, the CIA can see that the conflict is “being lost in conventional terms,” says British geopolitical analyst Alexander Mercouris.

The appointment of former head of Ukraine’s military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov*- clearly a CIA asset - as chief of staff, means that “2026 is going to be the year when Zelensky’s star finally fades.”

Looking ahead, the Ukrainian regime may want to pursue “an asymmetric conflict” against Russia.

💬 “They want to do it through sabotage, through all of the various cloak and dagger operations we've seen being used… the assassinations, the bombings, the attacks on Russian strategic bases.”

*listed by Russia’s financial watchdog as an extremist and terrorist

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🗣 Trump’s New Monroe Doctrine proves world has no rules — Dugin

Following the US operation in Venezuela, philosopher Alexander Dugin declared that the event confirms international law no longer exists and "it is every man for himself."

He called for Russia to fully embrace its own "Monroe Doctrine for Eurasia," arguing that only by asserting its sphere can Russia avoid having rules imposed upon it by others.

"We need to formulate our own Monroe Doctrine for Russia... I have been working on this for more than 30 years," Dugin noted.

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🇻🇪💣🇺🇸 US Venezuela strikes show White House’s ‘dangerous irrationality’

The US military escalation against Venezuela is a “completely illegal hybrid attack with no justification whatsoever, which flagrantly violates the UN Charter,” Argentine expert Tadeo Casteglione tells Sputnik.

👉 The attack has confirmed everything that former President Hugo Chavez and incumbent Nicolas Maduro “have been saying for years about US interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, the economic war, the sanctions, and the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” Casteglione stresses.

It shows that Latin America is entering “a completely uncontrolled year, without any rules, and with complete US interference in the region’s internal affairs,” according to the expert.

💬 "This demonstrates a dangerous level of complete irrationality on the part of the US government," Casteglione concludes.

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🇺🇸❌ US ‘doesn’t understand international law’ – analyst

Unleashing aggression against Venezuela, the US plans to appropriate the South American nation’s resources, Venezuelan analyst Fanny Rose tells Sputnik.

The US “doesn't understand international law and treats Venezuela as if it were a new toy they've acquired, disregarding the real wishes of the Venezuelan people,” Rose underscores.

She touts President Nicolas Maduro as a person who “embodies the dignity of Venezuela and that of the entire Latin America, which is why mobilizations are taking place across the country to defend its sovereignty,” the analyst concludes.

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🙅 No one supports US attack on Venezuela – foreign minister

💬 "This aggression finds no support; it is aggression condemned by the entire world, the law, and political truth," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil told Sputnik.

He emphasized that Venezuela has received words of solidarity and condemnation of the US attack, as well as support for the rule of law.

Gil also stressed that “peace in Latin America was disrupted” by the US attack on Venezuela.

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🔸 US transfers Maduro to DEA headquarters in New York

🔸 Venezuela’s Supreme Court orders Delcy Rodríguez to assume presidency

🔸 Zelensky’s pick of Budanov as new chief of staff signals Ukraine’s imminent collapse

🔸 US capture of Maduro marks start of WWIII — Dugin

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🪖 Ukrainian military mercilessly pounds their own surrendering soldiers with drones – POW

💬 “That was our [Ukrainian] Mavic [drone], which detected us in red tape, our hands tied behind our backs, with no jackets,” Ukrainian soldier Yury Konovalov, who was captured in the settlement of Rybnoye in the Dnepropetrovsk region, told Sputnik.

He said that shortly after, Ukrainian drones “like bees, attacked from all sides,” wounding him and his fellow servicemen, who were also taken prisoner.

Konovalov said he believes the drones may have deliberately attacked them because the Ukrainian military realized that they had surrendered.

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📹 Watch Russian Grad MLRS crush Ukrainian strongholds

Grad MLRS crews from Battlegroup Vostok have eliminated enemy strongholds and manpower in the settlement of Velikomikhaylovka (Dnepropetrovsk region).

The strike successfully disrupted Ukrainian defenses in the area.

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👀 US actions in Venezuela tantamount to ‘imprisonment of international law’ – expert

💬 "Trampled by American feet were the UN, international agreements, and the sovereignty of national states, which are key pillars of the world order and diplomatic immunity,” Egyptian expert Tarek Al-Bardayisi tells Sputnik.

He notes that such actions represent a "civilizational setback and a blatant return to the law of the jungle."

👉 Touching upon Western powers’ position on the Venezuela crisis, the expert emphasizes that double standards have become the defining feature of contemporary international relations.

Western countries react to crises based on their own interests and preferences, rather than on the principles of justice and impartiality, Al-Bardayisi sums up.

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