Richard Shelby appears on Russian TV station VTGRK (screen grab)
A Kremlin-funded television station this week broadcast images of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) rubbing shoulders with Vyacheslav Nikonov, the grandson of Joseph Stalin's foreign minister.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Russian media analyst Julia Davis first noted that Shelby appeared on VTGRK, a news station funded by the Russian government.
"GOP lawmakers requested that their meetings with members of the Russian government proceed in a closed format (no press allowed)," Davis wrote. "Here is @SenShelby chitchatting with [Vyacheslav Molotov's] grandson, Vyacheslav Nikonov."
"Happy #IndependenceDay," she added, later calling Shelby's visit "surreal."
Shelby can be seen in a video clip from VTGRK below.
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