Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to Tara Reade, an American woman who previously worked as a Senate aide for former U.S. President Joe Biden. The move, announced via a decree published on Russia’s official legal information portal, follows Reade’s public request for a Russian passport in 2023,.
The decree, which was signed on Monday, September 22, 2025, identifies the new citizen as “McCabe Alexandra Tara,” a name Reade reportedly adopted in 1998 for protection from a former abusive husband. Reade, who now works with the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT, has been living in Moscow since she moved there in May 2023. At the time, she stated that she felt safe in Russia and intended to apply for citizenship.
Reade gained international attention in 2020 when she accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in a Senate corridor in 1993, an allegation that Biden has consistently and categorically denied. Investigations by major news outlets at the time found no corroborating evidence for the assault claim, and no record was found of a complaint Reade said she had filed with Congress.