Russia puts U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on federal wanted list

Russia’s Interior Ministry has put U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on its federal wanted list “under an article of the Criminal Code,” the state-run news outlet RIA Novosti reported on Monday.

Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin ordered the initiation of criminal proceedings against Graham on May 28, citing the senator’s “Russophobic statements.” “In a video recording shared on the Internet, during a meeting with the president of Ukraine, American Senator Lindsey Graham spoke about the U.S. government’s financial involvement in causing the deaths of Russian citizens,” read the Investigative Commitee’s press release. It’s unclear what crime Graham has been charged with.

As Reuters has previously reported, the full version of the video of Graham’s conversation with Zelensky shows that the former’s comment about the deaths of Russians and his statement about American investments were not made consecutively, as a shorter edited version of the video released earlier made it appear.