"While in St. Petersburg, Clay won the support of Russia for the Union cause and convinced Tsar Alexander II to threaten worldwide war with England and France to keep them from intervening on the side of the Confederacy, with whom they both sympathized.
The Russian Baltic Fleet arrived in New York harbor in in September 1863 and the Russian Far East Fleet arrived in San Francisco that October. The Tsar ordered his Navy to be under Lincoln’s command if war broke out."
https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/time-russia-guaranteed-civil-war-union-clay/
The Russian Baltic Fleet arrived in New York harbor in in September 1863
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I had forgotten that. Oh the games countries play and the money that’s made and lost. Of course the money is far more important than the lives lost /s
Another version isn’t as altruistic. The other version claims the Russian fleet went to the US to hide in case the Polish crisis caused a war with Britain and France.