First Look: Russia's JFK Assassination File

Rep. Luna released a 350-page dossier from the Russian government about JFK's assassination. JFK Facts explains what this document is — and what it is not.

Undated photos of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev meeting U.S. President John F. Kennedy, included in the 350-page document entitled “The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and Soviet-American Relations” (Credit: Embassy of Russia)

Background to the story:

Last April, Russia’s Interfax news service reported that Russia’s Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv) was “preparing a publication” on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. No more information was forthcoming.

On May 20, at the second hearing of the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, Judge John Tunheim, former chairman of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), said the board had sought to obtain “the entire KGB file on Lee Harvey Oswald that is maintained in Minsk, Belarus.” He noted the board had been close to acquiring the file in 1995, but the Russian government backed out at the last minute.

Rep. Luna expressed her intention to Judge Tunheim to follow up on the matter…