Russia grants citizenship to US woman who accused Biden of sexual assault

MOSCOW: Russia has granted citizenship to Tara Reade, a former US Senate staffer who had accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s.

A decree signed by President Vladimir Putin and published on Russia’s official legal information portal confirmed that “McCabe Alexandra Tara, born February 26, 1964,” had been granted citizenship.

US media reported that Reade changed her name to Alexandra McCabe in 1998 to protect herself from her former husband, whom she accused of domestic violence.

In 2020, as Biden campaigned against then-President Donald Trump, Reade publicly alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a corridor at the US Capitol in 1993, when he was a senator and she was a staffer. Biden categorically denied the allegations, which nonetheless loomed over his campaign.

She made headlines in 2020 as Biden’s presidential campaign was getting under way, when she alleged that he assaulted her in a Capitol Hill corridor when she was 29.

She accused him of forcing her against a wall and putting his hands under her shirt and skirt.

Trump, who returned to power in 2025, has himself faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, harassment and rape.

Questions about Reade’s claims persisted, as no record was found of the complaint she said she had filed with Congress at the time.

In May 2023, she told Russian state media Sputnik that she intended to apply for a Russian passport, citing fears for her safety in the United States.

She later announced in July 2024, via social media platform X, that she planned to return to the US to file a complaint against Biden — just days before the ailing president dropped out of his re-election bid.