WASHINGTON, May 22 (RIA Novosti) –A group of US lawmakers is set to travel to Russia to investigate the Boston Marathon bombings, and try to boost cooperation between the former Cold War rivals, the office of Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who is leading the delegation, said Wednesday.
“As Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, Mr. Rohrabacher is leading a delegation to Russia to learn more about what transpired surrounding the Boston bombing suspects, as well as to foster a good working relationship with Russia in a post-Cold War environment,” Rohrabacher’s communications director, Tara Setmayer, told RIA Novosti.
“The Boston bombing is not the primary purpose for the trip, it’s just one facet of it,” she said.
The Boston attack was allegedly carried out by two brothers from Russia with Chechen roots. Russia warned the United States in 2011 about one of the brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, saying he had become a follower of radical Islam.
Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police near Boston several days after the bombings, but questions have been raised about why the warning from Russia did not raise more red flags and why Russia didn’t respond to US requests for more information about Tsarnaev.
Three other Republican lawmakers -- Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Steve King of Iowa and Paul Cook of California – and Democrats Steve Cohen of Tennessee and William Keating of Massachusetts will also make the trip. ABC News, which first reported the visit, said it will take place next week but Rohrabacher’s office would not confirm the details of the trip, for security reasons.
In addition to probing the Boston Marathon bombings, the lawmakers will visit the once-secret Star City in Russia, where cosmonauts are trained, to discuss US–Russia cooperation in space programs, Setmayer said.
They also hope to “foster a good working relationship with Russia in a post-Cold War environment,” she added.
Rohrabacher was a speechwriter for US President Ronald Reagan, who famously told the leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 to “tear down this wall,” referring to the Berlin Wall that divided the German city into the communist east and the capitalist west.
“There’s no reason for us to be in the Cold War attitude anymore,” Rohrabacher was quoted by ABC News as saying.
