Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) hosted a delegation of sanctioned Russian officials in Washington, D.C., Thursday, drawing mixed reactions from GOP colleagues and condemnation from Ukraine advocacy groups and the Russian opposition in exile.
Luna is putting herself forward as a facilitator of dialogue between the U.S. and Russia in pursuit of peace in Ukraine. But she is harshly criticized by Kyiv’s supporters and critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who say she is serving to legitimize war-stained figures.
Luna provided the Russian lawmakers with a private tour of the U.S. Capitol Thursday evening.
A congressional aide said they entered Speaker Mike Johnson’s suite of offices through the balcony unannounced, adding that the Louisiana Republican was not present at the time.
In attendance at the meeting earlier in the day were Luna and Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas).
Svetlana Sergeyevna Zhurova, a member of the party United Russia, acknowledged it was her first time to the Capitol before The Hill was discouraged from asking further questions of the group.
Luna earlier told The Hill that Congress has “one obligation to establish communication, to foster dialogue, especially with one of the world’s greatest nuclear superpowers who is typically been seen as an adversary.”
Her GOP colleagues offered mixed reactions.
“Russia is an adversary,” said Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), Luna’s colleague on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Obviously, we are — and this administration — is supporting the Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine. … I would have questions about what the objectives are.”
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a hawkish supporter of Ukraine, told The Hill he equates a meeting with members of the Duma “to having visitors of the Third Reich,” referring to the Nazi regime in Germany between 1933 and 1945.
“I don’t know her personally,” he said of Luna. “I just disagree that working in any way with the Putin regime, they have every intent to promote the Iranian goal of death to America, death to Israel.”
Van Orden said the Russian lawmakers started out saying that they didn’t understand why they were sanctioned by the U.S., why relations are so bad between the countries and criticized the U.S. for also starting wars.
“Yes, we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq; I’m not disputing that,” Van Orden said he told them. “But if you’re not telling the truth, this is not going to work, and they were like ‘OK.’”
Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL who said he trained Georgian and Ukrainian special forces to fight against Russians, said that the U.S. side was united in a message of peace. He said it was important to establish a relationship before making demands of the Russians on what needs to happen next.
Van Orden said the Russians expressed that they also want the war to end but “didn’t get into any details” on how to make that happen.
“The journey of a thousand miles is starting with a single step,” Van Orden said when asked how to get to peace.
Asked how he personally found the lawmakers, Van Orden said, “They’re just people, I mean they’re diplomats, one guy I guarantee he used to be a KGB agent — that’s a very good, educated guess. But pleasant enough.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was invited to the meeting but couldn’t make it, adding, “it’s always appropriate to have a conversation.”
But the chair said he would have pressed the Russians on making hard concessions to end the war, to withdraw completely from Ukraine, de-escalate its nuclear posture, pay reparations and resolve war crimes allegations, particularly Russia’s kidnapping of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.
“If I had a wand to wave to say all these things from Russia that Brian Mast would personally want, it’d be a long list,” he added.
Luna posted a photo of the delegation standing outside the U.S. Institute of Peace, the congressionally funded research institute shut down by President Trump in 2025, but rebranded with the president’s name and used as an event space for the administration.
“We are pushing for an ending to the war in Ukraine,” Luna told The Hill. “We want to make sure that there’s support from Congress in those peace talks as well as the president’s perspective on everything.”
The U.S. last convened Russia and Ukraine for peace talks in February. A fourth round of talks was expected this month but was postponed because of the war with Iran.
Luna said in January that the State Department was providing the Russian lawmakers visas and that it also likely required a sanctions waiver. All members of the Russian delegation were sanctioned in 2022 with the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Asked for comment on the delegation, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishyna wrote in a text to The Hill, “What we can confirm now is that those individuals are still fully sanctioned.”
“So it’s up to responsibility of those Senators and Congressmen who meet people directly responsible for the massive war crimes of humanity and loss of 1.2 million Russian soldiers.”
Ukraine advocates slammed the meeting.
“This is outrageous and unacceptable. Russian Duma deputies are under U.S. sanctions,” Razom for Ukraine, a lobbying and advocacy group, said in a statement.
“They support bombing churches in Ukraine and supplying Iran with intelligence used to kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East. The only place these people should be traveling to is The Hague.”
The Free Russia Foundation (FRF), a Washington-based think tank led by exiled Russian opposition leaders, said waiving sanctions on individuals undermines the purpose of the penalties. FRF’s vice president is Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was freed by the U.S. in a prisoner exchange with Moscow in 2024 after being imprisoned in 2022 for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“At a time when Ukrainian people continue to suffer, and political prisoners in Russia remain behind bars, granting access to those complicit in these policies is unacceptable. It risks normalizing impunity and weakening the united front that democratic countries must maintain.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) slammed Luna for her history of engaging with pro-Putin factions.
“Anna Paulina Luna needs to decide if she wants to represent Florida or the Kremlin,” DCCC spokesperson Madison Andrus said. “If being a Russian sycophant is Luna’s true calling, Florida voters will be more than happy to show her to an early retirement so that she’s not claiming to speak on their behalf.”
Andrus did not respond to a follow-up question on Gonzalez joining the group.
The Russian delegation included the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Alexander Darchiev and five Duma deputies. The delegation was led by Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Nikonov, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Duma.
The Free Russia Foundation said in an analysis that Nikonov’s participation suggests a formal authorization for the Russian lawmakers to engage in talks, “rather than an informal or exploratory exchange.” The FRF said that Nikonov “is one of the most senior and institutionally embedded foreign policy figures in the State Duma” and blends “ideological messaging with attempts at pragmatic engagement.”
Other members of the delegation included Boris Aleksandrovich Chernyshov of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, deputy chair of the State Duma; Mikhail Gennadyevich Delyagin, member of the party A Just Russia — For Truth; and Vladimir Pavlovich Isakov, member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
FRF said in its analysis that the cross section of the delegation seeks to demonstrate pluralism in Russian governance, includes members with strong economic experience, and is a mix between hard-line ideologues and soft power advocates.
All are subject to sanctions from the European Union, while others hold additional sanctions from the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and others.
Updated on March 27 at 7:35 a.m. EDT