Rep Anna Paulina Luna

Rep Anna Paulina Luna is a Republican congresswoman representing Florida's 13th congressional district. On 26 March 2026, Luna invited a Russian State Duma delegation led by the sanctioned Foreign Affairs Committee chair Vyacheslav Nikonov to visit the US Congress — a visit authorised by the US State Department. All members of the delegation were under EU sanctions at the time, making it the first official Russian parliamentary contact with Congress since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Luna was first elected to Congress in 2022 and is associated with the America First wing of the Republican Party. She has been a vocal sceptic of US support for Ukraine and has used procedural votes to challenge Republican leadership, including filing a motion to vacate against former Speaker McCarthy. Her invitation to the Duma delegation reflected a strand of Republican thinking that favours direct engagement with Russia over continued proxy support for Ukraine.

The visit generated significant diplomatic friction with EU partners, who noted that hosting sanctioned individuals contradicts the shared sanctions framework. The episode illustrated the growing gap between parts of the US Congress and European allies on how to engage Russia — and raised questions about whether the State Department's authorisation reflected a deliberate executive-branch policy of maintaining Russian diplomatic channels outside EU coordination.