Vladimir Putin is gunning for the son of one of Donald Trump’s Cabinet members.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s son Conor Kennedy, accusing him of acting as a “mercenary” for Ukraine, according to TASS. The charges are in line with the Kremlin’s long-running narrative on the war, which dubs all foreign volunteers who join the Ukrainian military “mercenaries.”
A correspondent for the Russian news agency also reported that Conor, 32, was placed on the international wanted list.
Conor, an ex-boyfriend of Taylor Swift, would face seven to 10 years in prison for the charge if he were to be hauled before the court on Russian territory. But it’s largely toothless since he was charged in absentia.
It’s unclear why the court handed down such an order now, nearly four years after the health secretary’s son spoke publicly of fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
He shared on Instagram in October 2022 that he had volunteered to fight because he was “deeply moved” by what he saw there and was “willing to die there.”
“I told one person here where I was, and I told one person there my real name. I didn’t want my family or friends to worry, and I didn’t want to be treated differently there,” he wrote at the time. “The people I met were the bravest I have ever known. My fellow legionnaires — who came from different countries, backgrounds, ideologies — are true freedom fighters.”
Conor said he wasn’t there for long, but he “liked being a soldier” as he fought in the Kharkiv region as part of Ukraine’s International Legion. He didn’t specify exactly when he joined and left the legion.
Conor is Kennedy’s third-oldest child and his first child from his marriage to Mary Richardson.
In 2016, he was arrested outside a Colorado nightclub for allegedly fighting someone in defense of a gay friend who had been called a homophobic slur, People reported at the time. After pleading guilty, he was given a six-month sentence, was ordered to pay a $500 fine, and write an apology letter to the victim, in addition to abstaining from drugs and alcohol throughout his sentence.
“Like any father, I don’t want to see my son fighting or involved with the police,” Kennedy told the outlet at the time. “But on the other hand, I’m proud that he stands up to bullies.”
