MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Materials pertaining to an investigation into the assassination of America’s 35th President, John F. Kennedy, which the US National Archives and Records Administration released under US President Donald Trump’s order dispel the myth of "Russia’s footprint," said Vasily Khristoforov, the chief research scientist at the RAS Institute of the Russian History (part of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Khristoforov headed the Department for Registration and Archive Funds of the Russian Security Service (FSB) for 15 years.
He said in an interview with TASS that the scenario of a "Russian" or "Cuban trace" concerning the biography of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald who had spent a year in the Soviet Union is "self-explanatory."
"I think that the American security services scrutinized this version and dug deep, as we can say. However, I am confident that they looked into other scenarios as well," Khristoforov noted.
"The Soviet Union could not have benefited from the assassination. Relations with President Kennedy were developing well, as could be seen from the meeting between Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961. No significant documents were signed there, but a thawing could be seen already," he stressed. Moreover, "after Kennedy’s assassination, the Soviet Union’s intelligence services voiced concerns that some frenzied American general could press the button, figuratively speaking, and launch nuclear missiles," he said.
"Why is it beneficial for Trump to disclose and release these records? In my opinion, Trump or his advisors studied the documents from ‘the Kennedy archive’ and know that there is no ‘Russian trace’ there," the expert believes.
"Trump kills two birds with one stone by releasing these documents. First, he demonstrates the openness of American society. Second, it is advantageous for him because it enables him to say, ‘We’ve been looking high and low for the ‘Russian trace’, but there is none."
"I am confident that there is no ‘Russian trace’ there and that Trump is aware of it. It is beneficial for President Trump to dispel the myth of Russian intervention in US domestic policy," Khristoforov noted.