Russia in Global Affairs

The recent U.S. raid on Caracas has inevitably provoked extreme reactions, ranging sometimes from enthusiasm to—much more often—astonishment and indignation. True, over 80 years of the post-Yalta order the world has got accustomed to cautiously observing international law. Nevertheless, looking further back in time, this is certainly not the first case of the rules’ violation. History knows hordes of furious warriors sowing chaos in their wake—the barbarians who flooded Europe, such as the Vandals, or Eastern figures like Genghis Khan and Mamai. Yet, among such characters, the Vikings best match the present master of the White House.

Ironically, during Donald Trump’s first election campaign in 2016, Russian genealogist Alexey Nilogov asserted that Trump is a direct descendent of Rurik the Viking, a Scandinavian invited in 862 by the people of Novgorod to assume rule. The first Prince of Novgorod established the Russian proto-state that would later become Muscovy and the Russian Empire.

Whether this lineage[1] is physical or spiritual matters little; more important for us is its mere existence.

There is no better person to help us with our Viking quest than Regis Boyer, Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Civilizations, the author of numerous works on the northern kingdoms and translations of Viking stories, a scholar of immense erudition and knowledge of Old Icelandic, the language of the sagas. Boyer published a commented translation of The Saga of Harald the Ruthless, a 13th-century text in which one episode sounds strikingly up-to-date:

Hearts tremble with fear
A war fleet sails along the coasts (…)
We have cast anchor
In the Gordnarfjord
While the Gerd (women) dressed in linen
Rock their husbands with their songs.

Putting aside the similarity of this except with the Delta Force’s night intrusion that pulled President Maduro and his wife out of their bed, let us focus on basic features that Donald Trump has in common with the Vikings (keeping Régis Boyer’s insights^[2] in mind).

Vikings as raiders

The Vikings were masters of the lightning raid, or strandhögg, literally a very quick landing on the shore (strönd) to deliver a staggering blow (högg) on the enemy. The moment of surprise, often aided by on-site agents, was crucial to offset their small number and quickly escape with the loot. Usually, the main target of their plundering was the local population—the source of vast and lucrative slave trade.

The resemblance with Maduro’s capture by the Delta Force lies not only in the motto “Surprise, Speed and Violence in Action” but in the regular equipment: the Vikings’ boats simply took on the form of the helicopters in the operation Absolute Resolve.

Vikings as sailors

The American President shares with the Vikings their fascination with ships. As Régis Boyer points out, “the Viking is his boat’ (which, incidentally, was never called drakkar, but knörr or skeid). Owing to the omnipresence of water in their environment (the sea, rivers, and swamps) and the scattered settlements, the Vikings very early developed water transport “indispensable for survival,” as Boyer says.

This passion echoes Trump’s announcement made on 23 December last year about the plans to build the battleship that will bear his name, the Trump-class USS Defiant, which should become “the largest in history and in the world.”

The Vikings’ strong interest in ships is coupled with the zeal to give ships their own names—and thus open opportunities for profitable trading.

Vikings as traders

The Vikings were, above all, “remarkable traders,” Boyer emphasizes. The main reason is that, in the icy expanses of the North marked by long nights, the only source of income, besides forests and fishing, was trade. For centuries, and especially in the 9th-11th centuries, the merchants, primarily of luxury goods, conducted trade with the entire West, as well as with Arabs and Greeks. Archaeologists found the scales used by the Vikings to weigh chopped silver—currency for trade obtained as trophies during raids, and a wooden “compartment wallet” used to store different currencies in circulation in Europe at the time—a forerunner of Wall Street?

Trump’s entire career is a tribute to the Viking way of life. His appetite for building ships resembles a constant conquest of new territories, that of a Viking—no longer at sea but on land. In his seminal The Art of the Deal^[3] Trump unabashedly speaks of his morale: when you are in business, you must take revenge on anyone who hoodwinked you or brought harm. You must learn how to make your opponent go belly up—a genuine Viking business formula.

Trump’s Thing

Trump’s recently initiated Board of Peace has much in common with the thing in medieval Scandinavian society. The word appeared in Old Norse and might derive from proto-Indo-European -ten, meaning ‘stretch’ as in “a stretch of time for an assembly.” In the Viking Age, such were public assemblies of free men. They gathered chieftains and kings to solve disputes, serving as law courts; and to make political decisions, particularly concerning power display. An important feature is that they were not democratic but dominated by the heads of clans and wealthy families—a reminder of the one-billion-ticket required to secure a permanent seat on Trump’s Board of Peace.

Vikings as looters

The Vikings’ aim was to acquire wealth by any means possible: trade, plunder (if the balance of power was in their favor), or mercenary work. Trump’s announcement of the “takeover of Venezuela” and its vast oil reserves, fits perfectly into this logic of predation. Not to mention U.S. predatory instincts and experience accumulated since 1945, which have made it the world’s leading power.

In his speech before the UN Security Council convened in an emergency session on 5 January, renowned American economist Jeffrey Sachs counted a staggering 70 operations aimed at regime change between 1947 and 1989, involving the U.S.’s the use of force, subversive actions, and political manipulation.

This unfortunate habit was not abandoned with the end of the Cold War. Reminding the UN audience about the U.S.’s hegemonic excesses, Sachs warned about its inevitable anarchic repercussions around the world and called for the defense of the UN Charter and international law. But can this “old private,” a veteran since 1945, still be saved?

Warriors in the era of turbulence

Despite the sorrowful indictments of lawyers and state leaders against the blatant and unrestrained violation of international law, it is important to understand that the raid on Caracas is, essentially, beyond good and evil, beyond what is allowed and what is forbidden. Inscribed in history, it has adopted a mode made possible (Trump would say “necessary”) by the interlude we are experiencing now—an era of turbulence between two world orders, the Yalta order and the next one.

The Viking age, between 800 and 1050, also emerged due to weakened kingdoms (Boyer speaks of a ‘stunned West,’ a term that surprisingly suiting the European Union of 2026) before disappearing under the pressure of the Christianization of the Scandinavian countries and the rise of strong kings to power, forcing the ‘sea kings’ to pledge allegiance and pay taxes on their loot.

Getting outraged with U.S. behavior is pointless, as the legal and moral principles of 1945 have been whittled away. Grieving over this situation will bring nothing but endless whimper. Those who do it will just face a stiff challenge from the contemporary world, and risk remaining “extra” while the others continue to make history. “Nostalgia is not a strategy,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in his speech at Davos.

The consensus over the Vikings’ world

The important thing now is to understand what kind of a new world is emerging right now. Undoubtedly, its new principles will largely depend on the consensus, if any, reached between the three major world powers and, consequently, on the attitude of two rivals—China and Russia.

Remarkably, the latter have actually approved the Absolute Resolve operation, giving rise to situations that are incongruous and would be unthinkable just a few months ago: the Chinese state media Global Times congratulated the CIA for its military feat,^[4] while ever-sharp former Russian president Medvedev cheerfully suggested following the Americans’ lead by kidnapping the German Chancellor!^[5]

Furthermore, despite the Chinese government’s firm show of condemnation, it sees the threat of new U.S. tariffs (already approaching 50%) as more worrying than the loss of its ideological ally, especially since oil from Venezuela accounts for only 4% of China’s imports. The same attitude is seen in Russia, where reaching a compromise with Washington to end the war in Ukraine takes precedence over any other alliance.

Thus, the world is marching towards reorganizing the rules to a Monroe Doctrine of variable geometry—American, Chinese, or Russian—and towards dividing the world into major spheres of influence.

This trend has recently been revealed by Fiona Hill, Trump’s former Russia advisor, who said during her congressional hearing that Russian officials indicated in 2019 that the Kremlin would be willing to back off from its support for Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in exchange for a free hand in Ukraine.^[6]

Moreover, over the past decades, an increasing number of countries have resorted to the Vikings’ methods by using private military companies (PMC) as an instrument of influence, particularly in Ukraine and Africa. Stealthy and effective, PMCs help the states to extend their sphere of influence by presenting the international community with a fait accompli, where the Old World’s bureaucracy would fail, hindered by internal contradictions and inertia. Thus, the Vikings have cut the Gordian knot of diplomacy. And Trump the Viking has no intention of stopping.

After Venezuela, Greenland

On the heels of the Venezuelan president’s detainment in the New York jail, the mastermind of his capture was challenging his next victims—the Cubans, who, he said, would “go down for the count,” and Greenlanders, who would have “only sled dogs to defend themselves.” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielssen can well shoot back Trump’s conquering remarks and say “It’s disrespectful” to Trump’s claim “we need Greenland,” but the Danes have a lot to worry about. For Greenland, the story, or the Saga of Trump the Ruthless, was written a long time ago:

The following year you raised
Troops in the beautiful land;
Waves crashed over the ships;
The magnificent fleet plowed the sea;
The good ships rode the blue waves;
The Danes were in bad shape;
They saw the ships
Loaded with warriors on the sea.

(The Saga of Harald the Ruthless, Сh. 32 “Harald’s Raid in Denmark”)

This is an edited version of the paper first published on 9 January 2026 in The Diplomat.