Russia said the United States is pushing Russian companies out of Venezuela’s energy sector.
“Right now, following Venezuela and what is happening there, our companies are quite openly being pushed out of Venezuela,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with RT, a state-linked media network.
The US launched a military operation in early January that resulted in the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In the interview published on Thursday, Lavrov linked the US’s pressure on Russian companies to broader efforts to curb Moscow’s role in global oil markets.
Lavrov cited recent sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as tariffs and restrictions on countries purchasing Russian oil, including India.
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“Everywhere it is being said that Russian oil and Russian gas will be replaced by American oil and American liquefied natural gas,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s investments in Venezuela at risk
Russia now faces the prospect of significant financial losses in Venezuela following the US operation, which has upended decades of strategic cooperation between Moscow and Caracas spanning energy, defense, and diplomacy.
Energy ties played a central role, reflecting the importance of the oil sector to Russia’s economy.
A former US ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union warned last month that Russia’s exposure in Venezuela could translate into concrete losses.
“Russian investments in Venezuela’s oil industry over the last twenty years will now have to be, formally or informally, written off,” wrote Stephen Sestanovich, the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Loans for Venezuela’s purchase of Russian weapons could meet the same fate, while trade between the two countries could also come to a halt, Sestanovich added.
That would come at a sensitive moment for Russia’s economy.
As the war in Ukraine approaches its fifth year, sweeping Western sanctions and lower oil prices are weighing on budget revenues that fund President Vladimir Putin’s war chest. In January, Russia’s oil revenue plunged to its lowest level in over five years.
At least one Russian state-owned oil company has moved to ringfence its exposure. Last month, Roszarubezhneft said that all of its Venezuelan assets are owned by the Russian state.
At the center of the US operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife was an elite and secretive special operations group, per multiple reports.
Citing officials, outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Delta Force, alongside law enforcement personnel, carried out the extraction of Maduro as part of Operation Absolute Resolve, a surprise nighttime raid of the Venezuelan leader’s compound in Caracas.
Business Insider wasn’t able to independently confirm the participation of the elite unit in the operation. The Pentagon directed BI’s queries to the White House.
In discussions of the complex operation, President Donald Trump said only that it was executed by “the most highly trained soldiers in the world,” adding that “there’s nobody that has their talent.”
Caracas, the capital of Venezuela
Juan BARRETO / AFP via Getty Images
The president may have been speaking about all of the personnel involved. US officials said that the operation to grab Maduro included land, air, sea, space, cyber, and intelligence forces. But Trump’s language could easily apply to Delta Force, a top-tier special operations unit.
Here is what we know about this elite force.
An essential but highly secretive group
Delta Force, officially known as the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (SFOD-D), is tasked with capturing and eliminating high-value targets. Like other tier-one special mission units, such as SEAL Team 6, Delta Force tackles some of the US Army’s most covert and complex tasks.
The special operations unit, founded by Col. Charlie Beckwith in the 1970s for direct combat action, unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism, is headquartered at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, also home to other Army special operations forces.
Operators train for rapid infiltration and exfiltration, intense close-quarters combat, precision marksmanship, demolition, hostage rescue, and more. Unlike some other units, Delta pulls the best warfighters it can from across the US armed forces, though it mainly draws from Army special operations forces. Known as “quiet professionals,” Delta Force operators generally do not speak openly about their activities.
Much of the elite force’s work is highly classified, but some Delta missions are public knowledge.
Delta Force was involved in the US operation, Just Cause, that ultimately led to the capture of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega during the 1989 invasion of Panama. And the group distinguished itself during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book and film “Black Hawk Down.” Two snipers were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions.
This century, this unit was among the US special operations forces that surged into Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 attacks, played a role in the 2003 capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and was involved in the death of the infamous Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
Aircraft, explosions, and smoke were seen across Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, during the US operation.
Reuters
And now reporting indicates Delta Force, along with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, was instrumental in capturing Maduro.
The assault on Venezuela and raid on Maduro’s compound
The US president and other US officials shared details of the raid that captured Maduro on Saturday.
Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the apprehension team broke into a fortified compound to capture Maduro after months of planning. US intelligence agencies watched and studied his patterns of life, while other teams trained for the operation on a replica of Maduro’s home. The US used a similar tactic to ready for the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.
Reports indicate Delta Force was inserted into the target area by the 160th SOAR, the Night Stalkers famous for their ability to get special operators in and out of tough spots.
With fighters, bombers, electronic warfare planes, and more delivering strikes and providing air cover, Caine said the helicopters carrying the extraction team were able to reach their target with “totally the element of surprise.”
During the complex apprehension operation, American operators moved fast through the building to find Maduro and his wife, seizing them before they could get the door closed on a steel safe room.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrives in New York.
Reuters
Trump said that Venezuela’s military was overwhelmed by US forces. Several American personnel were injured, the president said, and one of the helicopters was hit but remained flyable. No troops or equipment were lost in the operation.
The Trump administration is holding Maduro responsible for supporting narco-terrorism (drug trafficking) and other criminal activity. The recent operation is also about oil, with the administration accusing Venezuela of using oil revenue to fund malign activities. Maduro has denied the allegations.
Trump said on Saturday that the US would run Venezuela until a “safe, proper” election could occur. He also said that US oil companies would be entering the country, which has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.
To secure these operations, he said that he’s not ruling out putting US troops on the ground. He said the US military is ready to conduct more attacks if needed.
US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Maduro and his wife were charged in New York with drug and weapons offenses. He is due to appear in court.
The US executed targeted, large-scale attacks in Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas, overnight.
President Donald Trump said Saturday American forces struck the country’s military, turned off the lights in the city, and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for prosecution in New York.
The assault news has raised big questions. Here’s what we know right now.
What did the US military just do in Venezuela?
The US carried out strikes in Venezuela early on Saturday.
Luis JAIMES / AFP
Early Saturday morning, Trump revealed on Truth Social that the US military carried out a “large-scale attack against Venezuela” and that the leader had been captured and taken out of the country.
The US president didn’t seek Congressional approval prior to the mission. Congress, however, was notified afterward.
Trump told Fox News he watched the capture of Maduro play out in real time from a room inside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida alongside military generals.
“I was told by real military people that there’s no other country on Earth that can do such a maneuver,” he shared during a phone interview with Fox News. “If you would have seen what happened, I mean, I watched it literally, like I was watching a television show.”
Trump said the raid was “extremely complex,” more so than the Midnight Hammer operation against Iran’s nuclear sites conducted last year. Maduro and his wife were taken to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.
Trump said US assets involved included land, air, and sea, including a “massive number” of aircraft and troops. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said the apprehension mission, called Absolute Resolve, was based on months of intelligence-gathering, including watching Maduro’s patterns of life, and involved all elements of the joint force, from space and cyber assets to traditional combat forces.
The assault involved 150 aircraft — fighter jets, bombers, electronic warfare planes, intelligence and surveillance aircraft, and helicopters and rotary aircraft — that provided “layered effects” to clear the way for the interdiction force to slip in with the “element of surprise” into downtown Caracas. Fighters and different drones covered the extraction.
There were no US personnel or equipment losses, Trump said; however, he did say that troops were hit, along with a helicopter that he said was hit “pretty hard.” Caine said the US responded to hostile fire with “overwhelming” force.
What has the Trump administration been saying about why this is necessary?
The US military has built up a massive force presence in the Caribbean in recent months, including aircraft at an airport in Puerto Rico.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP
Tensions have been rising for months between Venezuela’s Maduro regime and the Trump administration, which has ramped up its rhetoric while increasing military action nearby.
The US has blamed Venezuela for pushing deadly drugs into the country, as well as using its oil industry, which the Trump administration says the US built and intends to take back, to fund narco-terrorism and other criminal activities.
The administration has labeled cartels and the Maduro regime terrorist organizations. Trump has also called Maduro an illegitimate leader.
What’s been happening in the lead-up to this assault?
Trump said a US helicopter took fire during the operation in Venezuela.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP
The US has been launching attacks against alleged drug trafficking boats since September 2025, with over 100 people killed and others missing or captured.
A massive US force presence, including warships and combat aircraft, has been in the Caribbean to combat narcotics trafficking and pressure Venezuela for months.
More recently, US forces began executing a blockade of oil tankers out of Venezuela in an effort to enforce American oil sanctions, hurting a key Venezuelan export and straining its economy.
Maduro’s government said that the purpose of the US attack on Venezuela was to “seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, in an attempt to forcibly break the nation’s political independence.”
How unusual is this?
A destroyed air defense unit at a Venezuelan military base.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/REUTERS
The US has removed the leaders of sovereign states in the past. For instance, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, it captured Saddam Hussein after the Bush administration asserted the Iraqi president had weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was later convicted for crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court and executed in December 2006.
A lack of evidence that Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction led to criticisms against the Bush administration’s motives.
Much earlier, Panamanian military dictator Manual Noriega was also a target of American military forces during the US invasion of Panama from December 1989 to January 1990, partially prompted by his attempt to annul the results of the 1989 Panamanian general election. US courts had charged Noriega with drug smuggling and money laundering, and the Panamanian official was captured in January 1990 and taken to Miami, where he was convicted on most of the charges.
Both Noriega and Maduro were heads of state indicted by US federal courts, they were accused of using state power to facilitate drug trafficking, and the US could argue in both cases those actions taken against them were law enforcement.
The US has also conducted military action to kill prominent foreign figures. Exactly six years ago, US military personnel successfully assassinated Qasem Soleimani, a senior Iranian military officer, in a drone strike in Baghdad.
The US designated Soleimani a terrorist in 2005. In response to Soleimani’s assassination in January 2020, Iran launched missiles against US military bases in Iraq, injuring 110 US troops.
What’s happening now?
Maduro and his wife have been indicted in New York, and Trump said the US will be involved in the next steps for the Venezuelan government.
Carlos Jasso/Reuters
Maduro and his wife are on their way to New York. Pamela Bondi, US attorney general, said that Maduro had been charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, as well as conspiracy against the US.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said on X.
On Saturday morning, Trump posted a picture of Maduro in custody on Truth Social. The photo showed Maduro aboard USS Iwo Jima.
Venezuelan president Maduro in custody on the USS Iwo Jima.
Truth Social
By law, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez should assume power in Maduro’s absence. But Trump said the US would “run the country” until a “safe, proper” election can occur.
The president also added that US oil companies would be returning to Venezuela.
