Russia puts US senator on wanted list

The Russian Interior Ministry has put US Senator Lindsey Graham on the wanted list, whom Russian politicians had previously accused of making "Russophobic" statements after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 26 May.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti

Details: The wanted notice was published in the database of the Russian Interior Ministry.

Graham is reportedly "wanted under an article of the Criminal Code".

Earlier, Alexander Bastrykin, Head of the Russian Investigative Committee, authorised the initiation of a criminal case into the alleged "Russophobic" statements by US Senator Graham.

Background: 

• On 26 May, Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. In a video posted by the Ukrainian President's Office, Graham received Zelenskyy's gratitude for US$38 billion in US military assistance since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
• Graham called the US aid "the best money we've ever spent". He said he was visiting Ukraine on the 457th day of the war and that the Ukrainians resisting the invasion reminded him of "our better selves in America". "There was a time in America that we were this way, fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die," Graham said.
• "Now you are free," Zelenskyy replied during the meeting, "And we will be." To which Graham replied: "And the Russians are dying." Zelenskyy added: "Yes, but they came to our territory. We are not fighting on their territory."
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and other Russian officials linked the praise given by Graham regarding the benefits of US assistance to his comments about Russian deaths in the war. Initial excerpts of the conversation released by the Ukrainian President’s Office did not make it clear that the two remarks were made in different parts of the conversation.
• Russian politicians called the senator's statements "Russophobic", and the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, even went so far as to point out that senators could be killed in America.
• On 28 May, Graham himself rejected Russia's criticism of his support for Ukraine. Graham said he told Zelenskyy that Ukraine had adopted the American mantra "Live Free or Die". "It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals," the senator said.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!