🚨🇷🇺 Russia condemns US attack on Venezuela

Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia called the abduction of Nicolás Maduro an act of banditry, saying there can be no justification for the crime cynically committed by the US in Caracas.

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🚨🇷🇺Russia urges US to free Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife

Russian UN Representative Vassily Nebenzia said any disputes between the US and Venezuela must be resolved through negotiations.

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📹Situation outside the New York courthouse ahead of reading charges against Maduro: dozens of journalists, protesters and a heavy police presence.

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🔑 Expert outlines key ingredient to successful US-backed coup absent in Venezuela's case

📍 The 2026 US plot against Nicolas Maduro echoes the September 11, 1973 overthrow of Chilean president Salvador Allende in the sense that it’s “a continuation…of US imperialism using unilateral, deadly force against governments that challenge its hegemony in the hemisphere,” but lacks a critical component: betrayal by the military, Venezuelanalysis editor Ricardo Vaz told Sputnik.

💬 “Allende and the Popular Unity were socialists, they prioritized sovereignty over natural resources (copper), and that was a direct challenge to US interests and influence. The same applies to Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution.”

🟠 But unlike the Chilean case, where General Pinochet committed the moral crimes of betraying Allende and the constitutional order, and murdering the president, the only “sin” in Venezuela’s case was its “desire to remove the shackles of US neocolonialism, using resources in a sovereign fashion to improve the lives of the majority, driving regional integration away from the US sphere of influence, and ultimately constructing socialism.”

💬 “External pressure might lead to cracks and treason, but that is the primary issue: US imperialism,” Vaz stressed.

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🧡Russia's Cheburashka goes global

👉The Russian live-action animated comedy Cheburashka 2 – the latest adventures of the furry hero with big ears, shy smile and kind heart has waddled its way into the global top three — and hearts everywhere.

📍Released on January 1, the movie raced past the $12 million box office mark on day two and hit $31 million by the end of the opening weekend, taking third place worldwide, just behind Avatar: Fire and Ash and Zootopia 2.

❗️By day five, over 5 million viewers across Russia had joined the fun, with nearly 1 million tickets sold daily and revenues topping $6 million a day.

✅The first Cheburashka film was released in 2023.

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🇻🇪Maduro hires former Assange lawyer

👉Abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has chosen prominent US criminal defense attorney Barry Pollack to represent him in his Manhattan trial.

✅Pollack, known for long representing Julian Assange and helping secure his 2024 plea deal and release, filed a notice of appearance in the Southern District of New York ahead of a scheduled hearing.

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🇻🇪 Venezuela not as vulnerable to internal betrayal as its neighbors have been historically: here’s why

📍 Unlike past US-backed coups across the region, plotters in Venezuela have not found a base of support in the military to draw from to successfully overthrow the government and install a US puppet regime, renowned international law specialist and UN expert Alfred de Zayas told Sputnik.

🗣 “When the US tried to overthrow Hugo Chavez in 2002 and the coup d'etat failed after 48 hours (Chavez had been taken prisoner – but his popularity with the Army was such that the Army succeeded in liberating him), the Venezuelan people remained loyal to Chavez,” Zayas recalled.

🔊 “I am convinced that the Venezuelan authorities would have remained loyal to Maduro if they had had the opportunity. That is why Maduro was immediately flown out of the country,” he added.

👉 Speaking to Venezuelan government officials repeatedly, including in his capacity as a UN independent expert, and in the years since, Zayas said what stuck out to him about these conversations was their ideological commitment and loyalty “to the tenets of the Bolivarian Revolution,” and the US’s inability to easily “buy” them.

💬 “I personally know of several high officials who were approached by CIA operatives with very attractive offers, and they refused to sell out,” Zayas said, recalling that he too was approached by the CIA on two separate occasions, but similarly refused to do so.

What’s more, in his conversations with ordinary Venezuelans, the expert came away with the impression that “the masses hate the United States – the Yankees – and will not accept a US puppet,” blaming US sanctions and pressure, not governmental incompetence or mismanagement, for their troubles.

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🚨Nicolas Maduro was brought into the courtroom without handcuffs as the hearing begins, Fox News reports.

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🚨I'M A DECENT MAN: Maduro pleads not guilty at his New York court arraignment

🔶Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty, saying he is a decent man and remains the president of his country.

🔶He addressed the court in Spanish, using an interpreter.

🔶Maduro’s wife also declared her innocence.

🔶Maduro said he had not previously seen the indictment and was unaware of his legal rights.

🔶Maduro and his wife requested a consular visit.

🔶According to his lawyer, Maduro is not seeking release at this stage; the defense plans to file a bail request later.

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🚨First court hearing in the Maduro case concludes: a New York judge ordered Nicolás Maduro to appear in court on March 17 for the next hearing.

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🤔 Why didn’t Venezuela shoot Maduro’s kidnappers out of the sky? Three explosive possibilities

👉 Glowing MSM reports on the operation to capture Maduro attribute success to the US military’s super-duper high-tech weaponry, tactics, and planning. But there are other, potentially far more plausible explanations, says Egor Lidovskoy, director of St. Petersburg’s Hugo Chavez Latin American Cultural Center.

Option #1

💬 “The first option is incompetence on the part of government agencies” and those responsible for Maduro’s protection, Lidovskoy told Sputnik.

Option #2

🔶 Maduro's betrayal is another theoretical possibility, perhaps if some officials agreed to collude with the US to give up the president in exchange for promises to profits from oil extraction if and when the Americans arrive in Venezuela.

💬 “We don’t have any evidence that this or that member of Maduro’s government or team betrayed him. We don’t have such facts. Therefore, I think it’s wrong to make unfounded accusations in advance,” Lidovskoy said. Instead, for now, “we must closely monitor what is happening, and based on this, draw conclusions about whether such a conspiracy exists or not,” he suggested.

Option #3

🔶 The most provocative possibility is that the kidnapping “was a Trojan Horse operation,” which would remove questions about betrayal and incompetence and explain “many inconsistencies,” Lidovskoy says.

💬 “The gist of this theory is that a US delegation accompanied by armed guards arrived at Maduro’s residence to discuss the parameters of a peace deal at a dinner, to conduct peace talks, to find common ground.”

🔶 This would explain the lack of incoming fire by Venezuelan air defenses on US helicopters.

💬 “Once inside, the delegation’s armed guard (revealed to be special forces) shot all of Maduro’s guards – who were unprepared for this – and captured the president. And only when the signal came in that something had gone wrong and the president had been captured did the bombing of Venezuelan bases and key air defense points begin, providing a smokescreen for the US withdrawal.”

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🔸 I'm a decent man: Maduro pleads not guilty at his New York court arraignment

🔸 Russia urges US to free Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife

🔸 Venezuela not as vulnerable to internal betrayal as its neighbors have been historically: here’s why

🔸 From confidants to coup-plotters: inner circle betrayals that have shaped Latin American politics

🔸 US plans creation of a ‘functional protectorate’ in Venezuela - expert

🔸 US interventions in Latin America – from WWII to today

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🇺🇸 ⚔️ 🇻🇪‘US wants to be in charge in Venezuela without directly running it’

The US is interested in “an artificial government running Venezuela” that follows White House orders, Portuguese expert Alexandre Guerreiro told Sputnik.

💬 “Everything is still unclear, but there is America’s intention is to rule in Venezuela through the country’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez,” he said.

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🚨🇻🇪 Delcy Rodríguez sworn in as acting president of Venezuela

Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as acting president following a Supreme Court ruling.

💬 “I come with sorrow for the suffering inflicted on the Venezuelan people after an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland. I come with sorrow for the kidnapping of two heroes held hostage in the United States of America — President Nicolás Maduro and the first combatant, the first lady of this country, Cilia Flores,” Rodríguez said.

💬 “I come with sorrow, but also with honor, to swear in the name of all Venezuelans… I swear by our liberator father Simón Bolívar, whose liberating blood runs through the veins of Venezuelans,” she emphasized.

Rodríguez concluded the oath by invoking Hugo Chávez, pledging to work for the country’s economic and social stability.

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🔊US-backed coups in Latin America are bad enough, Judas-style betrayals are worse

👉The US began overthrowing governments in Latin America in the 1890s, often working with internal elements, “usually the military and the business community,” to do so, Peter Kuznick, the director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, told Sputnik.

🗣“It's the internal betrayal that is sometimes even more disturbing, because that is not a question of US egregious use of power…That is some people committing the moral sin of working with the enemy, working with the aggressor, selling out the internal interests of the people in Chile or Guatemala or El Salvador, you go down the line, Brazil, that in some ways is more offensive because it could be avoidable,” Kuznick said.

“Within the Catholic tradition, this is especially outrageous because this is what happened to Jesus Christ. Jesus was betrayed by Judas. And so within the Catholic theological tradition, this internal betrayal is the arch enemy. Now, in Jesus' case, it wasn't so much the outside forces, although that was at play also, but the focus on Judas. So Pinochet is the equivalent Judas,” the historian pointed out.

💬“So the US has its puppets. The US has its cronies. The US has its betrayers who are willing to stab people in the back in order to get their own power for the military,” he added.

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🇺🇸 🇻🇪US stance on Venezuela adds to global instability

US actions in Venezuela creates the lack of trust, security and stability for the world as it invokes the so-called Monroe Doctrine to claim that “all Latin America is the US backyard,” and that Washington “can do and decide whatever it wants,” Portuguese expert Alexandre Guerreiro told Sputnik.

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