For the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian lawmakers have traveled to the United States for talks with members of Congress, as Moscow seeks to restore American ties while a more Kremlin-friendly president occupies the White House.
A Kremlin spokesman and senior Russian lawmakers said on Wednesday that four members of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, had been allowed to travel to the United States despite personal sanctions against them.
The visit is intended to “resume the communication, with no specific agenda,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, told Russian state news agencies. He called it a “test meeting” to “see each other, hear and feel each other.”
After Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago, Western countries, including the United States, sought to punish the Kremlin by expanding sanctions and isolating Russia diplomatically. President Trump, while keeping sanctions in place, has in some ways brought President Vladimir V. Putin in from the cold, including by hosting him for a meeting in Alaska in August.
The U.S.-Russian talks this week were organized by Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a conservative freshman Republican from Florida, who has pushed for a rapprochement with Russia and has cosponsored a bill calling for an end to U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.
Ms. Luna said in January that she had gotten the green light from the State Department for the visit of four unnamed Russian lawmakers to discuss Ukraine peace talks with members of Congress.
The delegation that Russia ultimately sent avoided outspoken lawmakers who have called for military action against the United States over its support for Ukraine, including threats of a nuclear strike.
It includes Vyacheslav Nikonov, a former academic and a grandson of the foreign policy chief to Joseph Stalin; Svetlana Zhurova, an Olympic champion; and Aleksandr Chernyshev, a little-known member of the foreign affairs committee, Mr. Slutsky said.
The State Department turned down a visa application for Mr. Slutsky himself, he said. Mr. Slutsky has faced a flurry of accusations of sexual harassment.
The State Duma over the years has become a rubber-stamp body that obediently approves legislation pushed by the Kremlin and authorizes all of its historic decisions like sending troops to Syria or annexing parts of Ukraine.
All of the members of the Russian delegation are under U.S. sanctions for their support of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its all-out war in Ukraine. The sanctions, unless waived, bar their entry to the United States.
A Russian government plane believed to be carrying the lawmakers landed in New York on Wednesday afternoon, according to flight-tracking websites. It was unclear whom they planned to meet with, other than Ms. Luna, who has not publicly commented on the delegation since its arrival.
Mr. Putin briefed the delegation ahead of the visit, his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Thursday, though he offered no details.
“We hope that these first, cautious steps definitely contribute to restoring our bilateral communications, which is in the interests of both Washington and Moscow,” Mr. Peskov said.
Breaking years of a diplomatic freeze, top U.S. and Russian officials met in February 2025 in Saudi Arabia, shortly after President Trump took office. The two sides discussed not only a peace settlement for Ukraine but also bilateral issues like financial investments.
Russian officials sounded optimistic at the time and spoke of possible initial steps to restore ties, including removing restrictions on each other’s embassies in Washington and Moscow and resuming direct flights between the two countries.
None of that has happened, as U.S. officials appear to still be tying those issues to ending the war in Ukraine.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine to stop the war, mediated by American envoys, stalled last month after the United States unleashed a military campaign against Iran.
Ukraine sent a delegation to Florida last weekend in hopes of reviving the talks. Russia is still committed to the peace negotiations, Mr. Peskov said on Thursday, but added that previous rounds had not brought a resolution to the main sticking points, such as Russia’s territorial demands in Ukraine.
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