John McCain to Give Putin Taste of His Own Medicine, Will Pen Op-Ed for Russia's Pravda

Could this be the tit-for-tat retort that reboots the U.S.-Russian debate over the Syrian crisis?

After Russian President Vladimir Putin's controversial New York Times op-ed, none other than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is reportedly ready to throw down with an opinion piece of his own...in a Russian publication.

(Credit: Getty Images)

That's right. McCain's apparently ready to pen an op-ed for the pages of Pravda that gets right in Putin's face, according to The Cable.

"If John McCain wants to write something for us, he is welcome," Dmitry Sudakov, the English editor of Pravda, tells The Cable. "Mr. McCain has been an active anti-Russian politician for many years already. We have been critical of his stance on Russia and international politics in our materials, but we would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain."

When The Cable told McCain's office about the offer, communications director Brian Rogers reportedly replied within minutes. "On the record: Senator McCain would be glad to write something for Pravda," The Cable quotes Rogers. "So we'll be reaching out to Dmitry with a submission."

McCain initially indicated his interest in penning such a column during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, the Huffington Post says. McCain joked at the time, "I would love to have a commentary in Pravda," The Cable reports.

But McCain isn't the sole politician wanting to fire back at Putin with words. Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) submitted a piece to the Russian magazine Kommersant called "An Open Letter to the People of Russia," the Huffington Post says.

"I am convinced that we would not agree on many things that he would have to say in his column," Sudakov tells The Cable of a potential McCain piece, "but an article like that would obviously be published in English and then translated into Russian so that all our Russian readers could read what Mr. McCain has to say."

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

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