Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he was willing to negotiate on Wednesday in an interview with a Russian television program. “I am ready to sit at the negotiating table with the opposition," Maduro said on RIA Novosti, "so that we can talk for the good of Venezuela, for peace and its future.”

His words, however, were not all forward-looking and optimistic. Indeed, in the same interview, he accused President Trump of plotting to have him killed, although he gave no evidence to support the claim.

Russia also took advantage of its ties to Caracas to push back on what it likely sees as heavy-handed U.S. influence in negotiations with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanding that preconditions for talks be dropped: “We call on the opposition to refuse ultimatums and to work together independently, guided only by the interest of the Venezuelan people.”

China, which like Russia has investments tied up in Venezuela, also has criticized U.S. involvement. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang warned, "We believe that Venezuela’s affairs must and can only be chosen and determined by its own people, and we oppose unilateral sanctions." He added, "China will continue to advance across-the-board cooperation with Venezuela to deliver more benefits to the people in both countries."

In the United States, President Trump made clear that U.S. support for opposition leader Juan Guaido wasn't going away. On Wednesday he spoke with Guaido and offered additional public support after imposing new sanctions against Maduro on Monday, tweeting:



Maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. Guaido is being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court. Massive protest expected today. Americans should not travel to Venezuela until further notice. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2019



Those split alliances, with Russia and China siding with Maduro and the United States and its allies backing Guaido, form the subtext for Maduro's calls for international mediation. Any successful talks would require cooperation from both sides and their international backers.

Should those negotiations be successful, paving the way for new elections, a peaceful transition, and setting Venezuela on the path of recovery, that would be a tremendous victory for diplomacy and demonstrate that the world is not yet so polarized that world powers cannot work together to solve regional crises.

The other possibility, of course, is that entrenched differences and escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing and Moscow make negotiations impossible, leading to an ongoing standoff in Venezuela — or something worse. Given the billions of dollars at stake in lost investments, competing interests in Venezuela's vast oil reserves, and the lure of a foothold in Latin America for Russia and China, that's not an unlikely outcome.

However the negotiations on Venezuela's future play out, the international interests at play make the conflict a key indicator of global stability and the reality of renewed Cold War-style tensions. It's surely a fight to watch with broad implications for future conflicts.