The Russia Day holiday marks the country's 1990 declaration of sovereignty, more than a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He called Rubio’s move a gesture of support for the aggressor state. Read also: U.S. greets Russia on holiday for first time since full-scale invasion “Marco Rubio today congratulated the Russian people who elected and support the greatest criminal of the world,

The U.S. State Department has published a Russia Day greeting from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, written “on behalf of the American people.”