Let’s see…what that was of interest to the Russians could have been on the national agenda back in the late 1990s, when Tom DeLay was lining his pockets with Russian money?
Yes, we all know about the IMF loan.
But there was also the little matter of Serbia, where Russia was openly supporting Milosevic in his genocidal campaign and Bill Clinton, over strong Republican objections, was trying to stop him. Recall that it was DeLay who engineered a public humiliation for the President while the (eventually successful) bombing campaign was going on. The Republican leadership told Clinton that there would be enough Republican votes to pass a resolution supporting the war effort. But that was a lie. DeLay actively lobbied to bring the GOP patriot count down to 31, defeating the motion on a tie vote. No one can say for sure how much that gesture of support for Belgrade against NATO extended the bombing campaign, or how many Serbs and Kosovars were killed or displaced as a result. But the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, at a time when American airmen were risking their lives in the face of the enemy, chose to help the enemy.
With Russian money in his pocket. Feh.