#Venezuela

Russia has dispatched a submarine to protect a sanctioned oil tanker from its “shadow fleet” as the vessel attempts to evade interception by the United States Coast Guard in the Atlantic Ocean—an unprecedented escalation in Washington’s global crackdown on illicit oil shipments, according to reporting by  The Wall Street Journal .

When Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was captured, Russia’s support for him proved insufficient. However, this is not the first time Russia has failed to assist one of its allies.

One of the US military’s most secretive surveillance aircraft—the stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel—appears to have been quietly deployed to support the high-risk operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, according to reporting by  The War Zone on January 3.