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U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-adviser Fiona Hill said Russian officials repeatedly suggested a geopolitical trade-off in which Moscow would step back in Venezuela in exchange for greater freedom of action in Ukraine.
Hill’s remarks, first made in 2019, resurfaced this week after a covert U.S. operation targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and were widely shared on social media.
Hill said Russian officials repeatedly raised what she described as a “highly unusual barter arrangement” linking Venezuela and Ukraine.
According to Hill, Russia’s then-ambassador to Washington, Anatoliy Antonov, conveyed messages suggesting that if the United States were allowed to act freely in Venezuela, Russia should be granted similar freedom of action in Europe.
Speaking to Associated Press, Hill said there was an implicit attempt at a deal.
“There was a ‘shall we make an implicit deal?’ approach,” she said, adding that there was no interest in Washington at the time.
No formal proposal was ever made, Hill said.
Hill said Russia promoted this idea through media references to the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century U.S. policy opposing European intervention in the Western Hemisphere while discouraging U.S. involvement in European affairs.
She noted that Trump also invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify U.S. actions toward Venezuela.
Hill said Trump sent her to Moscow in April 2019 to convey a clear message to Russian officials that Ukraine and Venezuela were not linked.
At the time, the White House, together with its allies, recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.
Following efforts to remove Maduro, the United States said it would directly manage its Venezuela policy.
Hill said the idea of major powers such as Russia, the United States and China carving out spheres of influence would appeal to the Kremlin and reinforce a “might makes right” approach to international relations.
She argued that Trump’s actions in Venezuela made it harder for Ukraine’s allies to label Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine as illegitimate.
“We had a situation where the U.S. sidelined another country’s government, or at least its administration, on what she described as fictional grounds,” Hill said.
The Trump administration, however, characterized the Venezuela operation as a law enforcement action and said Maduro’s arrest was lawful.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Hill’s statements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not comment directly on the operation, while the Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning what it described as U.S. “aggression.”
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