Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will publish an article responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin's op-ed piece in the New York Times, according to The Huffington Post.
The senator and former presidential candidate said on Friday he plans to attack Putin in Pravda, a Russian newspaper, who has welcomed the idea to McCain.
"If John McCain wants to write something for us, he is welcome," said Dmitry Sudakov, English editor of Pravda. "Mr. McCain has been an active anti-Russian politician for many years already. We have been critical of his stance on Russia and international politics in our materials, but we would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain."
The idea began on Thursday night during an interview with CNN when McCain said he would "love to have a commentary in Pravda." John Hudson, a reporter at Foreign Policy, immediately contacted Sudakov and asked him if his newspaper would publish an article by McCain.
Brian Rogers, communications director for McCain, received the phone call from Hudson and told him within minutes that McCain was open to the article.
"There are a lot of issues that I'm sure Sen. McCain would want to address," Rogers said. "Democracy and human rights in Russia and certainly the Putin regime's aiding and abetting of the Syrian regime, which has killed 100,000 of its own people."
McCain would not be the first U.S. legislator to publish an article directed towards Russia and their role in the Syrian crisis. Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) submitted a piece to Kommersant, a Russian magazine, titled "An Open Letter to the People of Russia."
Anger ran across party lines on Capitol Hill, leaving lawmakers on both sides displeased at Putin's remarks in his article titled "A Plea for Caution From Russia."
"I almost wanted to vomit," Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, told CNN.
