WASHINGTON (WTVO) — Tara Reade, the woman who accused President Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, has fled the U.S. to Russia.

Reade earlier this year said that Biden digitally penetrated her and groped her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in spring 1993. Biden has vehemently denied her claims, and current and former Biden staffers say they cannot recall such an incident.

“He was whispering to me and trying to kiss me at the same time, and he was saying, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’’’ she said. “I remember wanting to say stop, but I don’t know if I said it out loud or if I just thought it. I was kind of frozen up.”

Reade said that she pulled away and Biden looked “shocked and surprised,” and replied, “Come on, man, I heard you liked me.”

None of five current or former Biden staffers, who worked for him at the time, could recall the incident when asked by the Associated Press.

She later came under scrutiny over questions about her education and qualifications, according to CNN.

Biden’s conduct towards women first came under scrutiny just before he announced his presidential campaign last spring. Eight women, including Reade, came forward with allegations that the former vice president made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate physical displays of affection.

Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to “be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”

Reade appeared in Moscow on Tuesday in a news conference on Russian state media alongside convicted Kremlin spy Maria Butina.

She told journalists she fled to Russia after she received death threats in the United States.

“When I got off the plane in Moscow, for the first time in a very long time I felt safe, and I felt heard, and I felt respected. That has not happened in my own country,” Reade said.

She also said “this illusion of Russia as an enemy is propagated by a few Washington elites who are determined to cause problems,” and asked President Vladimir Putin “to fast track her citizenship request.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.