Introduction: A Southern Front Reemerges

When analysts talk about Russia's global sanctions-evasion and power-projection strategies, the usual frames are the Arctic's shadow fleet, Chinese intermediaries in Eurasia, or hybrid pressure on European neighbors. Less attention has been paid to Moscow's deliberate cultivation of forward logistics, military access, and commercial footholds in Latin America. Yet the hemisphere is reemerging as a durable and strategically consequential theater for Russian influence. Through a blend of energy diplomacy, military-technical cooperation, port and airfield access, and opaque finance, Moscow is constructing nodes that can serve multiple purposes at once: intelligence collection, supply and repair points for naval and air deployments, political leverage, and pathways to blunt sanctions.