Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the West’s economic war against Russia has backfired — and that Moscow hasn’t just survived, it has won.
Speaking on his weekly TV program Con Maduro + on Tuesday, the Venezuelan leader slammed Western “blockade” policies and accused the US and its allies of trying to dominate the global economy through unilateral sanctions that flout international law.
“The Russian economy has withstood all the missiles of sanctions and emerged victorious,” Maduro said, adding that President Vladimir Putin had “won the economic war, the military war, the political war, and the diplomatic war.”
Over the past decade, Western nations have unleashed a record-breaking barrage of restrictions on Russia — targeting finance, energy, defense, technology, and hundreds of individuals and companies. The pressure intensified after the 2014 reunification of Crimea with Russia and escalated dramatically following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
Moscow, however, has not buckled. Kremlin officials insist that years of economic siege have hardened Russia’s defenses, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing the sanctions as a “double-edged sword” that the country has learned to deflect.
Maduro, whose own country has faced sweeping US-led sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil industry, banking system, and government officials, criticized institutions like the WTO and UN for doing nothing to stop such “illegal” measures. He said Venezuela understands Russia’s struggle firsthand, having endured similar attempts to crush its economy.
Caracas has become one of Moscow’s most steadfast allies — condemning Western sanctions, deepening trade and diplomatic ties, and publicly backing Russia’s positions on global flashpoints. Earlier this year, Maduro went so far as to brand Kiev “the world capital of Nazism and fascism,” accusing Ukraine’s leaders of glorifying extremist ideologies.
For Maduro, the lesson is clear: economic warfare is far from the silver bullet Washington and Brussels believe it to be — and in Russia’s case, it may have forged a more self-reliant, battle-tested power than ever before.
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