The Russian influence in that election was so blatant that even before he became president, many Mexican political analysts were referring to López Obrador as “Andrés Manuelovich.”

And while solid evidence has remained elusive, many international political pundits have alleged that Russia used hackers, bots and fake news to boost AMLO’s campaign, especially among poorly educated, lower-income Mexicans.

Whether or not Russia indeed had a hand in AMLO’s victory, there is no question that Moscow benefited from his election.

Russia has been working to solidify its geopolitical foothold in Latin America for decades, and Mexico, with its close economic and geographic ties to the United States, made it a plum trophy for Moscow’s socialist ideological expansion.

Russia has been working to solidify its geopolitical foothold in Latin America for decades, and Mexico, with its close economic and geographic ties to the United States, made it a plum trophy for Moscow’s socialist ideological expansion.

Moscow offered AMLO the financial and media push he needed to win the election (remember John Ackerman, the U.S.-born Russia Today broadcaster who endorsed AMLO nonstop leading up to the elections and who later landed himself a juicy designation from López Obrador as a member of the technical evaluation committee of Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, which was later rescinded after opposition leaders pointed out that Ackerman did not meet the essential requirements for the post, and Ackerman’s wife, Irma Erénderira Sandoval, who was named head of AMLO’s Public Administration Secretariat, charged with ensuring that public servants were corruption-free, until she had to resign when it was revealed that she had accepted a plot of land from the Morena Mexico City government?).

And once he won, López Obrador paid Russia back in spades.

No sooner was AMLO in office in December 2018, than a team of Russian oil investors were welcome into the country to help the state-run Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) explore new reserves.

In the last three years, Russia’s economic and financial presence in Mexico has skyrocketed.

Last year, Russia sold more than $8.7 billion in goods and services to Mexico (up from just over $1.5 billion before AMLO took office in 2018), and there are now 108 Russian companies with capital holdings in Mexico.

Last year, Russia sold more than $8.7 billion in goods and services to Mexico (up from just over $1.5 billion before AMLO took office in 2018), and there are now 108 Russian companies with capital holdings in Mexico.

Moreover, ever since he took office, AMLO has been faithfully following the Vladimir Putin handbook: consolidating power by shamelessly working to eliminate all independent entities that could provide checks and balances to his regime, endorsing other socialist governments (Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela), and constantly accusing his critics of unproven crimes and even imprisoning some of them.

For AMLO, the Russian affiliation has been a win-win relationship, with Putin helping López Obrador to hone his own Mexican-style “kompromat” assaults against his political and media enemies and coming to the rescue of his “Man in Mexico” at the start of the covid-19 pandemic by providing a generous stash of Sputnik vaccines.

And AMLO knows full well what side of his bread is buttered on.

On Friday, Feb. 25, just as Putin’s troops were ruthlessly grabbing control of Kiev, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, was signing the final acquisition papers on a 50-percent operator interest in an offshore Mexican oil project (the fruit of those aforementioned initial Russian oil dealings with AMLO immediately after he took office).

Just as Putin’s troops were ruthlessly grabbing control of Kiev, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, was signing the final acquisition papers on a 50-percent operator interest in a $435 million offshore Mexican oil project.

Lukoil put the transaction value of the deal at $435 million, plus expenditures of another $250 million.

The project includes two sectors of Mexican offshore oil fields located in the Gulf of Mexico, with recoverable hydrocarbon reserves amounting to 564 million barrels of oil equivalent, more than 80 percent of which is crude oil.

Production at the fields already began in the fourth quarter of 2021, with current average output exceeding 25,000 barrels a day and projected production to reach more than 115,000 barrels a day. (So much for AMLO’s promises to keep Mexico’s oil in Mexican hands.)

López Obrador’s favorite battle cry is “Primero los Pobres” (“The poor come first”). But considering his undying love for Putin and all things Russian, it probably should be “Primero los Rusos.”