Arizona Rep. Crane blasted for cozy meeting with Russian lawmakers

Congressman Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, is facing bipartisan criticism after co-hosting a delegation of Russian lawmakers.

The visit Friday brought together five members of the Russian Duma and five members of the U.S. House – four Republicans and one Democrat. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who organized the meeting, called it a “push for peace” between the two nations.

Colleagues in both parties took a much dimmer view.

“I compare this meeting on Capitol Hill as having a visit by the Third Reich,” Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Members of the war criminal Putin regime must not be welcomed in any way.”

At the Capitol, the Russians toured Statutory Hall and Speaker Mike Johnson’s office. They also visited the U.S. Institute of Peace building and the Kennedy Center, both of which Trump renamed after himself.

The Russian delegation included Vyacheslav Nikonov, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Duma, and Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Alexander Darchiev. 

Crane, a former Navy SEAL who won his House seat in 2022, has on many occasions expressed anti-war sentiments. He recently called the U.S. operations in Iran “dicey.”

“Toppling a regime isn’t the hard part. It’s what comes next,” Crane told the conservative news channel Real America’s Voice on March 2, three days after the U.S. struck Iran.

Crane is unopposed in the July 21 primary. He has not issued a public statement about the Russian delegation and his office did not respond to multiple messages.

“While Arizona families struggle with rising costs at home, Eli Crane is busy giving private tours to Russian officials – one day after a report that Russia is helping Iran kill Americans in the Middle East,” said Crane’s likely opponent in November, Democrat Jonathan Nez. “Crane continues to fail Arizonans and prioritize foreign interests.”

The Russian delegation’s visit came one day after the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, asserted that Russia has been giving intelligence to Iran to help it “kill Americans,” plus drones to attack neighboring countries and U.S. bases.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asserted that Russia is providing satellite imagery to help Iran target U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, also criticized the lawmakers who welcomed the Russian officials. 

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin “should be punished for his abhorrent behavior — not rewarded,” he said. “At this crucial moment in history, we must prevent Putin from exploiting the conflict in the Middle East to line his coffers or legitimize his cronies.”

Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman turned CNN commentator and a prominent supporter of Ukraine in its four-year war with Russia, called Crane and the others “traitors.”

Democrats have been overwhelmingly critical.

“Foreign political operatives of our adversaries should NEVER be allowed on Capitol Hill,” Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., posted on X. “This ‘visit’ opened the doors to a massive security threat to the Speaker, to our Congress, and to democracy itself.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed divisions in the GOP. Trump has often spoken with admiration of Putin and at times berated Zelenskyy and pressured him to drop Ukrainian demands for territory occupied by Russia.

Crane has sought to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine.

“Why is the U.S. government allowed to continually spend money it doesn’t have?” he said during an interview in 2023.In April 2023, Crane co-led a small group of Republican lawmakers who penned a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding an end to U.S. aid to Ukraine without a clear strategy for bringing the war with Russia to a “rapid conclusion.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.