Some seemingly limited steps offer us strong signs about the deep currents of the international system. The Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Caracas in October 2025 and the landing of a Russian Il-76 transport plane in Venezuela soon after was neither a major operation on the surface nor an escalation reminiscent of the old crises of the Cold War. How strong and sustainable can Russia, itself at war, offer to a country in another hemisphere? But these small gestures made a fundamental fact of power architecture in Latin America visible again. Latin America is no longer an indisputable US area.
For many years, Washington has been reflexively counting the region as its own hinterland. The Monroe Doctrine turned from being a policy over time to a mental habit. When this habit was combined with the comfort of being single pole, the strategic attention of US decision makers towards Latin America was eroded. An optimistic belief has established that globalization will replace geography, democracy, the market and American cultural influence will permanently connect the region to Washington. But the international system follows power relations, not ideological imaginations. Therefore, Russia's opening to Venezuela is not a surprise; it is an actor who sees the void and fills the void.
Alliance of Obligation
Venezuela has been the target of sanctions, financial isolation and diplomatic pressure for years. The country's economic collapse, erosion of oil infrastructure and exclusion from the western financial system have forced Caracas to look for alternative partners. Moscow saw this opportunity both to expand its own extra-western orientation and to establish new networks through common interests with the countries surrounded by Washington. This rapprochement has no ideological dimension. Neither Russia is interested in Bolivarian socialism, nor Venezuela is a natural part of Russia's global vision.
What brings the relationship together is a realist common account, that is, two actors outside the western system, clinging to the strategic opportunities that each other can bring.
Deepened cooperation in the fields of energy, defense, logistics and diplomatic protection was only formalized with the 2025 agreement. The landing of Russian planes in Caracas was a message given to the USA rather than military capacity, that it is no longer a single decision-maker even in its own backyard.
USA's Eroded Power Pillars
Post-Cold War American supremacy was based on three structural pillars: the global hegemony of the dollar, the massive military capacity blended with technological superiority, and the ability to project power, and the moral legitimacy of the discourse of democracy. Each of these pillars is stretching today, we are facing a slow and accumulated wear, not a sudden collapse.
The dollar's superiority in international transactions continues, but it is no longer unrivaled. The alternative payment mechanisms of BRICS countries, trade through Russia and China with sanctions targets such as Venezuela, show that financial dependence has become a security risk. Every US sanctions encourage the creation of an economic space outside of it.
Washington still has an unrivalled power projection capacity. However, this capacity lost its influence due to long wars in the Middle East, obligations in Europe and political divisions at the inside. If even a single visibility of Russia in Latin America carries symbolic weight, it shows that the psychological basis of this deterrent is eroded.
The discourse of democracy is increasingly perceived as a strategic tool. Interventions that are not shaped in line with democratic principles and values abroad, internal polarization and the inconsistent implementation of the liberal order have weakened Washington's ideological attraction.
While these three pillars melt simultaneously, the shaking of the US influence in Latin America is also becoming inevitable.
Gaps, Excluded and New Coalitions
Gaps in international relations will not be empty for a long time. Venezuela is a geographical door for Russia's opening; Russia is a shield that balances Venezuela's exclusion from the global system. This relationship is part of a broader trend, namely the fact that the US has unintentionally strengthened counter-coalitions while trying to protect the global order with harsh tools with the arrogant hegemon habits acquired in the unipolar period. In other words, the US criminal policies enable the cooperation of its rivals and push its allies to new quests.
The Russia-Venezuela rapprochement is just an example of this dynamic. China's expanding economic networks, the institutionalization of BRICS, the rise of alternative trade corridors... All these developments show that the unipolar order is the exception, and multipolarity means a return to the natural state of history.
Small Signs, Big Results
A transport plane landing in Caracas does not create a major strategic transformation on its own. However, some symbols in history make visible the fragile points of the system. The harsh reaction of the US reflects the erosion of its own hegemonic self-confidence, rather than Russia's presence in Latin America.
If Washington struggles to manage challenges even in the Western Hemisphere, this indicates that the idea of hegemony is beginning to be questioned, not just its global supremacy.
This erosion will not stop unless the USA returns to a realistic assessment and to establish alliance systems on a realistic basis. The Russia–Venezuela rapprochement is not a turning point; it is a symptom of a deeper transformation. After all, even the USA, our region and beyond, we did not knock on the door to wear a leash of allegiance to ourselves called "Ibrahim Agreements", it does not leave an unbended arm. As the world moves towards a multicenter order again, it is trying to do this as vulgarish as in the days when it was monopole. It is quite doubtful how efficient this will be in the new world order that will arise from the natural mixture of balance and competition.