Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Darchiyev delivered a 350-page report on the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy to Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who will have a team of experts translate the documents. Luna, the chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, stated that the files would be uploaded to her office’s platform as soon as they were translated.
The documents, which were provided by the Russian Embassy in Washington, are part of an ongoing effort by the Russian government to declassify and publish the files in Russia by November. Luna has confirmed that the materials appear to be intact and that there are no redactions, suggesting that the files might contain significant new information regarding the assassination.
The handover has sparked renewed interest in the long-standing conspiracy theories that have surrounded the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who was shot and killed on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the killing but was fatally shot days later by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub operator. Despite the Warren Commission’s finding that Oswald acted alone, the assassination has been the subject of multiple conspiracy theories.
The release of these documents comes amid a series of recent declassifications, including an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March that mandated the declassification of archives related to the deaths of JFK, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. In February, the FBI reported discovering 2,400 new records related to the JFK assassination as federal agencies worked to comply with the Trump directive. In March, the Trump administration released 80,000 pages of previously unseen files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The move by Russia to release potentially sensitive information has also drawn attention to the broader context of international relations, with the Russian embassy noting that Ambassador Darchiyev expressed condolences over the ‘brutal killing’ of Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator who was recently attacked. The documents are expected to fuel further discussions about the historical events and their implications in contemporary politics and international relations.