Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) is going to write a column for Pravda, the Russian newspaper, in the wake of the publication of a controversial op-ed piece in the New York Times by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. McCain will likely write on a “range of issues, involving democracy, human rights and what’s going on in Syria,’’ said the senator’s spokesman, Brian Rogers, who said it would likely be submitted next week.
The writing assignment came about after Mr. McCain, in an interview on CNN, criticized Mr. Putin’s article and Russia’s poor record on press freedom. He quipped, “I would love to have a commentary in Pravda.”
A reporter for Foreign Policy magazine contacted Pravda about Mr. McCain’s comment, and the newspaper invited him to write in response, Mr. Rogers said.
Pravda, which means “truth,” is synonymous with Kremlin propaganda during the Soviet Union but is now a less-influential paper of Russia’s Communist Party, a smaller rival to Putin’s United Russia party.