Former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill has disclosed that Russian officials privately proposed exchanging geopolitical influence in Venezuela for Ukraine in 2019, suggesting Moscow would reduce support for Nicolás Maduro if granted freedom of action in Eastern Europe.\n\nAccording to Hill’s testimony to Congress in 2019 and recent statements to The Associated Press, Kremlin intermediaries floated the concept of a \”strange swap arrangement\” through Russian media channels that strategically referenced the Monroe Doctrine. This 19th century principle originally asserted U.S. opposition to European interference in the Western Hemisphere while America remained uninvolved in European affairs.\n\nAlthough Russian officials never formalized the proposal, Moscow’s then-ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, repeatedly hinted at Russia’s willingness to permit American intervention in Venezuela if Washington reciprocated regarding Russian ambitions in Europe. \”Before there was a ‘hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink, how about doing a deal?’ But nobody in the U.S. was interested then,\” Hill revealed.\n\nIn April 2019, President Trump dispatched Hill to Moscow with a clear rejection of the proposition. She explicitly informed Russian officials that \”Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other,\” reinforcing the White House’s position alongside allies who recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.\n\nThe geopolitical landscape has shifted dramatically seven years later. Following the U.S. operation that ousted Maduro, Washington has asserted it will now \”run\” Venezuela policy. Concurrently, Trump has revived threats to acquire Greenland—a self-governing Danish territory within NATO—and suggested military action against Colombia over drug trafficking concerns.\n\nHill warned that Moscow would welcome this resurgence of great-power sphere-of-influence politics, viewing it as validation that \”might makes right.\” She expressed concern that U.S. actions in Venezuela undermine Western moral authority to condemn Russian designs on Ukraine as illegitimate, noting \”we’ve just had a situation where the U.S. has taken over—or at least decapitated the government of another country—using fiction.\”\n\nThe Trump administration has characterized its Venezuela operation as a lawful law enforcement action. Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the move as \”aggression\” but has not responded to Hill’s specific account of the 2019 proposal. President Vladimir Putin has remained silent on Maduro’s ouster while maintaining Russia’s opposition to U.S. interventionism.
Trump’s former Russia adviser says Russia offered US free rein in Venezuela in exchange for Ukraine
