The head of a Russian state media broadcaster called for US Senator Lindsey Graham to be assassinated after the South Carolina Republican met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT and state-owned media group MIA Rossiya Segodnya, threatened that “we have his address,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Reacting to a video from Graham’s May 26 meeting with Zelenskyy in which he stated that US aid to Ukraine was the “best money we’ve ever spent,” Simonyan reportedly made the treatening statement.
“If [Lindsey] Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the US ever spent... It's not even hard. We have his address. We have his telephone number,” Simonyan said, according to a translation provided by Russian Media Monitor.
Russia’s interior ministry also placed Graham on a wanted list for uttering “Russophobic remarks,” and ordered his arrest on Monday for violating Russia’s criminal code, according to the Russian Tass news agency.
On Monday, Graham tweeted about the Russian arrest warrant, describing it as a “badge of honor.”
“I will wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin’s corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor,” he said.
“To know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin’s regime brings me immense joy,” he added. “I will continue to stand with and for Ukraine’s freedom until every Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian territory.”
He also made an “offer to my Russian ‘friends’ who want to arrest and try me for calling out the Putin regime as being war criminals.”
“I will submit to jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court if you do,” Graham wrote. “Come and make your best case. See you in The Hague!”