(Washington) An American who, during the 2020 election campaign, accused Joe Biden of a sexual assault dating back to the 1990s, asked President Vladimir Putin for Russian citizenship on Tuesday during an interview in Moscow.
Tara Reade, 59, appeared in a filmed interview with the media Sputnik alongside Russian MP Maria Boutina, a time imprisoned in the United States for trying to infiltrate political circles.
She said she arrived in Moscow as a simple tourist but felt “safe for the first time in a very long time”.
Mme Reade said she decided to stay in Russia for good when a Republican elected official told her she was in danger.
“I want to apply for Russian nationality” from President Vladimir Putin, she announced, promising to be “a good citizen”.
In early 2020, she claimed that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in a US Congressional hallway in 1993, when he was a senator and she worked for him.
The accusation, categorically denied by the Democrat, was nevertheless embarrassing for his campaign against outgoing President Donald Trump, himself accused by several women of sexual assault, harassment or rape.
But inconsistencies had appeared in Tara Reade’s statements. No trace of the complaint that she said she had filed with Congress after the fact has, for example, been found.
The American, who presents herself as a specialist in geopolitics, assured Tuesday that she had received death threats after her accusations were made public in 2020.