Subject: Precedent: The Russian invasion of Ukraine
It was striking to hear Donald Trump describe the extraction of Maduro as an “extraordinary military operation,” since this is essentially the same language that Vladimir Putin used in his speech announcing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. One wonders what term the translators have been using in all of those long phone calls Trump holds with Putin.

In invading Ukraine, Putin deliberately exploited the language of law, claiming that his aggression was justified by the UN Charter. The point was not to affirm but to ridicule the principles of international law. Russia has worked hard to create a world in which everyone treats international law as a joke. The American government made no effort to justify its extraction of Maduro in terms of international law, which is an obvious Russian intellectual victory -- even if the Kremlin itself might be displeased by the consequences in this particular case.

Less obviously, but more profoundly, the indifference to law is a victory for China. Until now, the Russians who have been doing the dirty work in China’s effort to remake the international order as simply a matter of power politics carried out by dictators in the service of personal priorities. Now the Americans are also helping to bring about a Chinese world order.
—Professor Timothy Snyder