Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered sweeping international isolation for Russia and stretched the nation’s resources. Nonetheless, Moscow has intensified its engagement with several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In this paper, the authors examine Russia’s activities in LAC—specifically in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Brazil—and how these activities have advanced its strategic aims across the region as a whole and with respect to its key partners. The authors also describe the implications of these activities for U.S. interests in light of the broader geopolitical context of the Western Hemisphere.
The authors find that Russia’s activism in LAC suggests that neither the resources needed for its costly war of aggression nor international isolation prevent it from pursuing objectives far from home. Deepening ties with key partners and opportunistic engagements across the Western Hemisphere help Russia marshal support in the Global South for its anti-Western vision of a multipolar world order and for its unlawful territorial claims. To prevent and respond effectively to these challenges, the U.S. government needs to assess Russian activities in the Western Hemisphere holistically—in the broader context of Chinese and Iranian influence and the direct connections between regional developments and effects on the U.S. homeland.
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