Following his testimony Wednesday to a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in favor of further U.S. sanctions against Russia, dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza told Newsmax he would be “happy to meet with representatives of the Trump administration.”
The White House, however, told us there were no plans to meet with Kara-Murza, whose poisoning and near-deaths in 2015 and earlier this year captivated the world’s attention.
“I’m not aware of anything,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told me on Thursday.
“I began meeting with members of Congress when I arrived here,” said Kara-Murza, vice chairman of the opposition “Open Russia” movement.
He said wanted “to say thank you to those who spoke out in my support after I was poisoned” and emphasized that he was meeting with “members of both parties.”
Kara-Murza called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meet with fellow dissidents and “different representatives of civil society” and “not just representatives of the Putin government” when he visits Moscow next month.
The National Security Council did not reply when asked if any meeting with Kara-Murza was scheduled.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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