Fiona Hill, a former top Russia adviser in the first Trump administration, has revealed that Russian officials in 2019 informally proposed allowing the United States full freedom to act in Venezuela in return for Washington granting Moscow a free hand in Ukraine.
Hill, who handled Russian and European affairs on the National Security Council, described the suggestion as a “very strange swap arrangement” during congressional testimony in 2019 and in recent interviews.
The proposals, never formal, were conveyed through media commentators, articles invoking the Monroe Doctrine, and hints from Russia’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov.
“You want us out of your backyard,” Hill summarized the Russian position in a New York Times report. “We have our own version of this. You’re in our backyard in Ukraine.”
Hill said she traveled to Moscow in April 2019 to reject the idea outright, stating that “Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other.”
The overtures came amid U.S. efforts to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and Russian deployment of military personnel to bolster President Nicolás Maduro.
In the wake of the recent U.S. military operation that captured Maduro—described by the Trump administration as a law enforcement action targeting narco-terrorism charges—Hill said the Kremlin is “thrilled” with assertions of spheres of influence, as it validates “might makes right.”
She noted that the intervention complicates allies’ efforts to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine as illegitimate.
Russia officially condemned the U.S. operation as “aggression” and a violation of international law.
However, some officials and commentators expressed satisfaction. Former President Dmitri Medvedev stated that “the law of the strongest is clearly stronger than ordinary justice,” adding that Washington now lacks grounds to criticize Russia.
Analysts say Russia’s priority remains its war in Ukraine, where the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations, limiting Moscow’s appetite for escalation over Venezuela.
The Maduro capture, resulting in at least 56 deaths, follows the earlier fall of another Russian-backed leader, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
