Natalie Kitroff

embargo for more than a half century.

The communist government is still holding on to power.

Wow.

Wow.

The Soviets really do have the best anecdotes.

I'm also struck, Anatoly, by the obvious thing that happens when you squeeze a country economically, which is that people who are suffering try to leave it.

They migrate, which is another thing the Trump administration really doesn't want to see happen, right?

When we talked about the boat strikes a while ago, Anatoly, you had mentioned that there was this faction inside of the administration that was pushing for a diplomatic route, for a negotiation that might give the U.S.

a deal and a way out of this escalation, this campaign.

Is that still an option here with now the seizures of these oil tankers?

And what benefit would that actually give the United States?

Can you just walk us through what the U.S.

actually gets out of potentially controlling Venezuelan oil reserves?

Okay, so geopolitical benefit.

Yeah, and we've seen the Trump administration explicitly acknowledge that that is the goal of its foreign policy in this recent document that it put out, its national security strategy, to establish itself, the United States, as the predominant power in the Western Hemisphere.

So how are China and Russia responding to this?

Why would they do that?

Why aren't they coming out more forcefully in defense of Venezuela and against this action by the U.S., which theoretically would expand American power?

It's fascinating.

It sounds like basically an acceptance by these two great powers that, yes, carving up the world into spheres of influence works well for them, too.