image source, Max Whittaker/New York Times/Redux/Iwine
The American woman who accused US President Joe Biden of raping her has gone to Moscow and applied for Russian citizenship.
Speaking to the state-run Russian News Agency, Tara Reid, 59, said she felt safe in the country and wanted to stay.
Ms. Reid alleged that Mr. Biden assaulted her in 1993 while working in his congressional office.
He vehemently denied his allegations. “Undoubtedly it never, ever happened,” he said.
Ms. Reid served as an aide to Mr. Biden when he was a senator from Delaware. In 2020, as her presidential campaign was underway, she made headlines when she claimed she was assaulted on a Capitol Hill sidewalk at the age of 29.
She alleged that he forced her against a wall and put his hands under her shirt and skirt.
“When I got off the plane in Moscow, for the first time in a very long time I felt safe, I felt heard and respected,” Ms Reid was quoted as saying during an interview with Sputnik by The Guardian newspaper.
He said he left the US after a Republican politician told him he was in physical danger.
“[I’d] “I would like to apply for citizenship in Russia, and from the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin … I promise that I will be a good citizen,” Ms. Reed said, adding that she hopes to retain her American citizenship.
Ms Reid is one of several women who have accused Mr Biden of inappropriately touching, hugging or kissing him in 2019 and 2020. He has filed a complaint, however no record of this is available and it is not clear whether his claim was properly investigated.
A spokesman for Mr Biden said he believed the women had “a right to be heard” but said the alleged incident “absolutely did not happen”.
