Russia launches criminal case after U.S. senator's war remarks

The head of Russia's Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered his agency to initiate criminal proceedings over remarks by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham that appear to cheer on Russian deaths in Ukraine.

"In a video circulated on the internet, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham spoke about U.S. financial involvement in the killing of Russian citizens during a meeting with the President of Ukraine," the agency announced on its Telegram channel.

The senator's "Russophobic" comments were being legally evaluated, added the statement by Russia's most senior investigative body.

The background is a video of President Volodymyr Zelensky's recent meeting with Graham that appeared on social networks on Friday.

Zelensky thanked the United States for its help in defending Ukrainians' freedom. In response, Graham appeared to say: "And the Russians are dying...The best money we ever spent."

However, the word "dying" is not clearly audible and some commentators speculated that Graham may have said "are done." There is a pause between the two sentences because the video was cut at that point.

In Russia, the comments caused a swell of outrage. Before the criminal proceedings were initiated, the Russian leadership had already verbally criticized Graham's alleged statement.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov spoke of a "disgrace" that such senators represented the United States. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared that U.S. investments had caused World War II and the Holocaust.

Now the U.S. was funding "the neo-Nazi Kiev regime," Zakharova added, reprising the Russian position that its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was necessary to defeat Nazism.