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Russia has put the son of a senior member of Donald Trump's Cabinet on its most wanted list for travelling to Ukraine to fight against Putin's army.
Conor Kennedy, 32, the son of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was added after Moscow's Basmanny District Court authorised his 'arrest in absentia' and accused him of acting as a mercenary for Ukraine's armed forces.
If apprehended, he faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison.
In 2022, shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion began, Kennedy quietly travelled to Ukraine and joined an international brigade fighting alongside the Ukrainian military.
He told nobody.
Not his father. Not his stepmother. He revealed the trip months later in an Instagram post.
"I told one person here where I was, and I told one person there my real name," he wrote.
"I didn't want my family or friends to worry, and I didn't want to be treated differently there."
He added: "I was also willing to die there. So they soon agreed to send me to the northeastern front."
He admitted he 'wasn't a great shot' but said he 'learned fast'.
RFK Jr. did not know his son had gone to a war zone until after he came back.
"When he got back, I kind of expressed some - I don't know - whether it's anger or whatever," Kennedy Sr. said.
"He said to me, when he heard maybe a little bit of anger and concern, 'Dad, this is what you taught me to do: to stand up for what I believe in.' And I was like, 'okay.'"
The fact that the son of a Trump Cabinet member is now on a Russian wanted list while Trump himself continues to pursue a closer relationship with Putin adds another layer to an already complicated picture.
The full list, compiled by the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, runs into the thousands.
It includes politicians, journalists, academics, entrepreneurs, musicians, and poets.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on it, which surprises nobody.
Ben Wallace, the former UK Defence Secretary, is on it after he publicly stated that the West should 'choke the life out of Crimea' by giving Ukraine long-range weapons capability.
Russian singer-songwriter Monetochka, whose real name is Yelizaveta Gyrdymova, is wanted after she fled to Latvia and spoke publicly against the invasion.
Rapper Face, real name Ivan Dryomin, left Russia in 2022 and is also on the list.
So is poet Vera Polozkova and political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann. j
Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was already sentenced to 25 years in prison before being released in a prisoner swap in 2024, features on the list.
A rapper, a poet, a singer, three journalists, a political scientist, an entrepreneur, a former UK defence secretary, the president of Ukraine, and the 32-year-old son of an American health secretary who decided to go and fight in someone else's war because his dad taught him to stand up for what he believes in.
That is Russia's most wanted list in 2026.
1. Monetochka (Yelizaveta Gyrdymova) - singer-songwriter, fled to Latvia
2. Face (Ivan Dryomin) - rapper, left Russia in 2022
3. Volodymyr Zelenskyy - President of Ukraine
4. Vladimir Kara-Murza - journalist, previously jailed for 25 years
5. Ksenia Luchenko - journalist
6. Vera Polozkova - poet
7. Dmitry Treshchanin - journalist
8. Ben Wallace - former UK Defence Secretary
9. Evgeny Chichvarkin - entrepreneur
10. Ekaterina Schulmann - political scientist
