Pro-Kremlin media are actively spreading misinformation about the 37th US President Richard Nixon’s alleged prediction of war in Ukraine. Referring to Nixon’s declassified letter to the 42nd American President Bill Clinton, Russian media claim that Nixon predicted an “American” Revolution of Dignity and an “American” war in Ukraine.
“Today we understand well how increased US diplomacy in Ukraine changed the situation. There were several attempts to arrange an “explosion”, and in 2014 they succeeded. Maidan led to a coup. Probably this was the goal of the US? As a result, the Kyiv puppet regime appeared,” the Russian media write.
US President Richard Nixon did not say anything about the “American war in Ukraine.” In 1994, he predicted a shift from Russia’s nascent democratic course to authoritarianism and its invasion of Ukraine.
Pro-Kremlin media are distorting real quotes from Richard Nixon taken from a declassified letter that he wrote in 1994 to then President Bill Clinton. Nixon wrote the letter on March 21, 1994, after he returned from a two-week trip to Ukraine and Russia. In the seven-page letter Nixon outlined his views on the future political development in both countries. His words really turned out to be prophetic. Nixon predicted Russia’s transition to authoritarianism and its invasion of Ukraine.
Nixon wrote that the preservation of political and economic freedom in Russia would become “the most important foreign policy problem the country will face before the end of this century.” He stressed in the letter that Russia’s nascent democracy, which came to be after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was in danger. In this context, Richard Nixon very accurately predicted that relations between Ukraine and Russia would worsen – as power in the Kremlin would most likely pass into the hands of an authoritarian ruler.
Against this backdrop, Nixon stressed that the situation in Kyiv is “highly explosive” and that the United States needs to increase its diplomatic presence in Ukraine to help the country survive.
“The situation in Ukraine is highly explosive. If it is allowed to get out of control, it will make Bosnia look like a PTA a garden party … In view of the importance of Ukraine, I immediately ask you to strengthen our diplomatic presence in Kiev,” Nixon emphasized back in 1994.
The words of the 37th US President really turned out to be prophetic – just five years after Nixon wrote his letter to Clinton, Putin came to power in Russia, and 10 years later, in 2014, the Russian army invaded Ukraine.
