WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEWS CENTER Maine) - Russian president Vladimir Putin wants his government to question a guy from Maine.
It sounds absurd - but it's one of several revelations from President Trump's Helsinki Summit last week. On July 13th, U.S. authorities indicted 12 Russian military officers for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In response, at his meeting with President Trump last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked for a swap: U.S. officials can interview those 12 Russians if Russia, in turn, can interview a list of U.S. officials.
On Putin's requested list of interviews is Kyle Parker, originally from Old Town, Maine.
"A friend sent me a note on Facebook saying, 'Kyle, the Russian prosecutor general wants to question you,'" he told NEWS CENTER Maine via FaceTime from his Washington D.C. office. Before he was in international headlines, Kyle Parker was just a regular guy from Maine. He graduated from the University of Maine in 1999.
Parker started his political career as an intern for Senator Olympia Snowe - only to rise through Washington to his current position as the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which monitors human rights and security agreements in 57 different countries.
"Look Mom!" he wrote on Twitter when his name appeared in Russian media. "Honored to have made the cut."
Parker doesn't know exactly why Vladimir Putin wants him questioned, but he speculates it's because of his work on Russia sanctions, specifically the Magnitsky Act of 2012, the goal of which was to punish Russian officials for the death of a Russian accountant who exposed hundreds of millions of dollars in government fraud. "It vindicates our work," he said. "We in the sanctions have discovered an Achilles' heel for the thieves and crooks that are running the Russian government."
"The whole notion was preposterous," Parker said. He doesn't think he'll ever actually be questioned by the Russian Government.
In fact, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to oppose the idea of a government interview swap.
Parker says being under the watchful eye of the Russian government might affect his international travel, but will not deter him from his human rights work. "If anyone thinks this sort of harassment from the Russian government is going to lessen our work or give us any pause, then they don't know the dedication of American public servants," he said.
