Kathrine Frich
Diplomatic backchannels and old proposals are getting fresh attention after Washington’s dramatic move in Caracas.
A former White House official says an earlier Kremlin idea now looks newly relevant.
The account has resurfaced online as governments argue over what the latest U.S. action means for other global flashpoints.
Strange swap idea
Russian officials signaled in 2019 that Moscow could ease its backing for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro if the United States gave Russia room to act in Ukraine, according to Fiona Hill, a former adviser to President Donald Trump.
Hill said in congressional testimony in 2019 that Russians repeatedly floated what she called a “very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine,” in comments later reported by the Daily Express.
Hints, not offer
Hill told The Associated Press this week that there was never a formal proposal, but that Russia’s then-ambassador to Washington,
Anatoly Antonov, repeatedly suggested a tradeoff: the U.S. could do what it wanted in Venezuela if Russia could do the same 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 said.
Message to Moscow
In April 2019, Hill said Trump sent her to Moscow to deliver a clear line: “Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other.”
At the time, the White House aligned with allies in recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, Hill said.
After the raid
Hill’s remarks are circulating again after the recent U.S. operation to capture Maduro.
She said Russia pushed the swap idea through Russian media references to the Monroe Doctrine, which Trump invoked to justify U.S. intervention.
Hill warned the Venezuela action complicates criticism of Russian ambitions in Ukraine. “we’ve just had a situation where the U.S. has taken over, or at least decapitated the government of another country, using fiction,” she told AP.
She added the Kremlin will be “thrilled” if major powers assert spheres of influence, because it reinforces the idea that “might makes right.”
Sources: Daily Express, AP
