The sturdy torso of Alexis Plyushev (39) is as red as brown. The 39-year-old Russian got his color from the Venezuelan sun. On February 22, after a 14-hour flight, he landed on the tropical island of Margarita. Two days later, on the Venezuelan night, the president of his country sent tanks and bombers into neighboring Ukraine. “Putin wants to secure a place in history,” says Plyushev. “That’s a big problem for us.”
The employee of a fast food restaurant in Moscow owes his vacation on the Caribbean island to the same Putin. And to another leader who is almost cut from the same cloth, the authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. On the day Plyushev arrived in Venezuela, Maduro promised “all support” to his Russian counterpart, whose troops were still looming along the Ukrainian border at the time. It was crystal clear, Maduro said, how NATO had surrounded Russia over the years and posed an acute threat to the country. Since the Russian invasion began, the Venezuelan leader has been retweeting daily posts about ‘Nazi Zelensky’.
Putin world
Because of the political friendship between two internationally controversial presidents, there has been a direct connection between Moscow and Porlamar, the largest city on the Venezuelan island, for six months now. It is the next step in a close collaboration that dates back to the time of Socialist President Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013. Venezuela, isolated by US sanctions, has already received loans, weapons and military personnel from Russia. Now, three times a week, more than four hundred Russian tourists land in one of Venezuela’s most idyllic places.
The Russian Pegas Touristik, which was given a monopoly by the Venezuelan government, divides the Russians over hotels on the island. Plyushev is staying in hotel Palm Beach on El Agua beach along the east coast. Hiding under a shelter from a tropical shower, he divides the world in two: ‘There is a Putin world and an America world.’ He lives in the first one, in which you ‘get a visit from the police’ after a tweet about the president, and in which you can buy an all-inclusive holiday for 1,000 euros – eleven days, flight and hotel with full board – to a quiet island where no American to be seen.
In that Putin world it can also happen that you wake up in your hotel room and discover that the war has started at home. “We came to relax, but we can’t do that anymore,” says 20-year-old Daria Netolkanova, who moved from Belarus to Russia last year. She’s more preoccupied with her phone these days than the rippling sea and rustling palm trees. ‘War in our time. And for the most idiotic reasons!’ In 2020, she took to the streets in Belarus, was arrested and was imprisoned for two weeks. She exchanged the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko for Putin. “It’s not much better in Russia.”
bubble
Netolkanova and her husband Kostja (28) have only seen the hotel and the beach after four days. They refuse the expensive tours of the hotel, but did not yet dare to explore the island on their own. ‘The tour company warned against crime.’ Just like the dozens of compatriots with whom they share the beach, they meddle through the day. While they take a dip or dry up on the beach chairs reserved for them, Russia bombs targets around Kiev and Ukrainian civilians line up to receive a machine gun.
The Venezuelan government is anxiously trying to keep its Russian guests within their bubble. The hotel shuttles them in long golf carts the half kilometer back and forth to the beach where the hotel bar serves the inclusive drinks. Police officers and hotel employees make their rounds among the bathers. The local sellers of necklaces, massages and oysters had to register first before they were allowed to mingle with the Russians. A few hundred meters away the beach is deserted, Venezuela attracts little other tourism.
The bubble is doing its job. Although the young couple Netolkanov muses about a life outside Russia, they hardly realize that they are still on holiday in the Putin world. “We want to be happy,” he says. “Like the Venezuelans.” Also Plyushev thought these days: ‘Venezuela is okay. I could live here.’ It is music to the ears of the government in Caracas, which this week exulted on Instagram that 13,336 Russians have now visited Margarita.
Expression of support
Until February 24, that was excellent news for Venezuela, that of its few friendships cherished most with mighty Russia. Just as the visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov a week earlier was a boost for the Maduro government. Again the two countries discussed military and economic cooperation. When Putin actually went to war – and surprised friends with it – Maduro softened his support to a call for dialogue. Although NATO remains the culprit, which, according to Maduro, broke the Minsk accords. And the “illegal sanctions” against Russia are a human rights violation.
Late on the balmy Caribbean evening – in Ukraine Zelensky warns of a Russian attack on Kiev – Pavel (33) from Siberia prepares a Russian cocktail in beach bar Meraki. He went behind the bar for the occasion. His wife Aleksandra (32) watches as he knocks back the glass. The couple (‘Pasha and Sasha’) belong to a minority among Russian tourists that Putin understands. “We’ve been trying to help Ukraine for eight years,” she says. Now the stubborn neighbor must feel. “The best defense is the attack.”