Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Sen. John McCain to Russia after he published a scathing attack on Putin in a Russian newspaper.
Putin says the Arizona Republican does not have an informed understanding of the country.
In an op-ed piece for Pravda on Thursday, McCain contends that Putin is a virtual dictator presiding over a "political system that is sustained by corruption and repression and isn't strong enough to tolerate dissent."
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"The senator has his own outlook on things, but I think he still does not have enough information on our country," Putin said, responding to questions at the discussion club of Valdai,
according to the news site Russia Behind the Headlines.
Putin invited McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to participate in the work of the
discussion club in Valdai, which is a group of Russian intellectuals, politicians, and journalists that gathers annually and discusses the country's future.
McCain said in a tweet he'd be pleased to accept the invite should his schedule permit.
McCain's article follows a Sept. 12 op-ed by Putin published in
The New York Times that argued against a U.S. military response to the conflict in Syria.
Putin's article
sparked outrage across the political spectrum after he said America was not "exceptional" in its role on the world stage.
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McCain: Putin an Old KGB Apparatchik With Dreams of Restored Russian Empire
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