Letter From the Editors

Political pundit Andrei Kortunov quotes the proverb above, citing Vladimir Putin’s use of it in reference to the West’s attempts to maintain hegemony. Kortunov uses the crowbar image more pointedly (pun intended) to describe Donald Trump’s recent acts of aggression on the world stage – toward Venezuela, Greenland and Iran – which happen to be the topics of the Current Digest’s first three features of the new year.

Among these, the move that grabbed the most attention was the US military raid in Caracas Jan. 3, in which special forces abducted Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife. According to Novaya gazeta Europe, they US cut off power in Caracas that night, then launched a series of air strikes that killed at least 80 people. The Venezuelan dictator is now in US custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Reactions around the world ranged from mild criticism to outright lambasting. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Maduro an illegitimate leader, but cautioned that the methods used to capture him set “a dangerous precedent”; whereas Colombian President Gustavo Petro stressed that the attack on Venezuela is all about oil, not the claimed goals of restoring democracy or fighting drug trafficking.

What about Russia? Meduza’s coverage of prowar Internet blogs is rife with comparisons to the Russian military’s protracted efforts to dismantle the Kyiv government. A reaction from Donetsk Infantry, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, reveals both envy and admiration, imagining Russian intelligence generals “watching this and asking: ‘Wait, you can just do it like that?’ ”

Halfway across the Atlantic, Trump is driving a wedge between the US and Europe by threatening to buy Greenland and use it as a beachhead for military operations against Russia and China. Daniil Sechkin writes: “This is probably the deepest crisis NATO has seen in the decades following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. . . . The Europeans are obviously opposed to [Washington’s purchase of the island]. But, not wanting to worsen relations with the US, they are proposing to expand NATO’s armed presence in Greenland.”

Yevgeny Fedorinov sees a historical parallel to 1941, when the US set up bases in Greenland purportedly to “save” it from Nazi expansion. Today, the outside threats are different, but “the substance remains the same. . . . History teaches us that such ‘salvation deals’ are rarely temporary. Instead, they become the foundation for long-term control.”

Even in countries where he has no ambitions for control, Trump is managing to pry his way into domestic affairs. Case in point: Iran, where the ayatollahs’ government is harshly cracking down on mass protests against falling living standards and limits on personal freedoms. As Yevgeny Shestakov reports, Trump ominously said he would take “strong action” against the Tehran authorities if they continue to kill protesters; the Wall Street Journal writes that even a military strike against Iran is under consideration.

As Kortunov aptly puts it: “The 47th US president is working his crowbar with enviable energy and genuine enthusiasm, breaking the melting ice of the old world order.” Speaking of ICE, Trump has been prying apart his own country’s order, too, sending thousands of armed agents all over the US under the guise of combating illegal immigration. These masked men in camouflage gear, chillingly reminiscent of enforcers from another era, have already claimed the life of at least one innocent bystander in East View’s hometown of Minneapolis. What’s encouraging is that civil society here and in other American cities is putting up strong resistance through marches and public awareness efforts.

These forms of peaceful resistance may be the most effective crowbar against authoritarianism – and independent media play a vital role in documenting both the tactics and the responses. After all, when it comes to prying, nobody does it better than journalists.