TEHRAN - A senior Russian lawmaker has taken a swipe at the United States for attempting to implement a Venezuela-style scenario in Iran. The chairman of the Information Policy Commission of Russia’s Federation Council told TASS news agency that the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro misled US President Donald Trump into launching a war on Iran.

“The abduction of Maduro and the very weak reaction to it from the Venezuelans, who chose to accept US conditions regarding control over Venezuelan oil exports, convinced him that a precision surgical military operation is a good tool for forcing a foreign regime to behave as the US wishes. After that, Trump apparently decided that something similar could be done in Iran,” Alexey Pushkov said.

He added that the US war against Iran, launched jointly with Israel in late February, was poorly prepared. He described the act of aggression as based on the “mistaken belief” that results could be achieved quickly through the use of force. The top Russian MP stressed that the US was “clearly unprepared” militarily for the conflict.

Pushkov also pointed to Iran’s response to the aggression. He said Iran had prepared well for the conflict, noting that it had moved “virtually all of their missile facilities underground, where they are extremely difficult to reach” and built up a missile and drone arsenal numbering in the tens of thousands. “And they have been working on all of this for a long time, preparing both economically and, so to speak, existentially,” he added.

Recent reports have revealed the significant toll the US suffered in its conflict with Iran, which began in on February 28 and lasted nearly 40 days. Despite attempts by the Trump administration to downplay the impact, new details show that Iran’s missile strikes caused extensive damage to US military bases in the region.

US officials, including War Secretary Pete Hegseth, had claimed that US defenses would neutralize Iranian missiles. However, NBC News reported that Iran targeted over 100 US bases, including a breach at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, where an Iranian F-5 fighter jet successfully bombed the base despite its defenses. Many Iranian missiles also bypassed US and allied defenses, undermining earlier assurances.

The war drained much of the US military’s stockpile of munitions, with reports from The New York Times estimating a cost of up to $35 billion for the campaign. Iran’s retaliatory strikes targeted Israeli strategic sites as well as US bases in the Persian Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.